ABSTRACT
This article seeks to clarify some of the current uncertainties of what politics means in a rapidly changing society. More importantly it investigates the position and role of organised events for the institutions of government. It does so with reference to two case studies – Stirling and Edinburgh, Scotland. The authors suggest that politics and participation in politics remains a fundamental measure
of the health of civil society. They also claim that an ongoing recognition of the depth of civil involvement affects the actions of government in how it chooses to initiate, support or not support festival and events in any given location. In stating this the authors propose that the changing nature of political participation, the confirmatory role played by increasing levels of social capital in our society and the predominance of national spatial development frameworks have together irrevocably altered the political environment in which events and festivals must prosper. Six broad areas of policy intervention are identified in the first of three models employed to
represent the spatial domain of politics and policy relating to events. A case study analysis of the cities of Edinburgh and the city of Stirling, Scotland, is undertaken to review the role and function of events and festival provision within the modern political setting. With reference to the spatial domain, two further models represent the dynamic nature of
networks and their proximity to spatial development objectives. These are elicited from the case study and the supporting literature. The second of these two models displays the rising importance of local spatial plans which are independent to those of the national plan. Other than in Edinburgh, the strategic significance of festivals and other events is unclear
with most local plans. The authors conclude that in the towns and cities of Scotland, festivals and events will nonetheless have an increasingly strategic function which will straddle an increasingly diverse range of government objectives. The authors warn that political ambitions and the imponderable risks faced in providing events can endanger many of these.
