ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on ‘mega-events’, in particular international Expos or World Fairs, in a European context. It interprets their historical growth, institutionalization and contemporary social significance as aspects of cultural modernization and as processes involving the ‘festivalization’ of European national and international public cultures in the modern era. The discussion builds on the sociology and socio-history of ‘mega-event’ genres (including, besides Expos, also international sports events, such as the Olympic Games) (Roche 2000; see also references cited in Note 5). Its conceptual framework and terms of reference derive from socio-historical and sociological inquiries into analytic and normative ‘cosmopolitan’ aspects of European public culture and society (Roche 2007, 2010: ch. 9).
