Negotiating diasporic culture: festival collaborations and production networks

Abstract

Purpose Within New Zealand, cultural festivals play a vital role in the local representation of diasporic cultures. By analysing the production design of festivals, in Auckland, New Zealand representing Indian culture between 1995 and 2015, the purpose of this paper is to create a deeper understanding of collaborative networks and power relationships. Using Richard’s pulsar/iterative network theory and Booth’s notion of cultural production networks, a new theoretical model is proposed to visually track the collaborative networks that sustain and bridge cultures, empower communities and fulfil political agendas. Design/methodology/approach This ethnographic research draws upon event management studies, industry practice, ethnomusicology and sociology to take a multi-disciplinary approach to an applied research project. Using Richards’ pulsar and iterative event framework Castells’ network theory, combined with qualitative data, this research considers critical collaborative relationships clusters and how they might impact on the temporal nature of festivals. Findings The 1997 Festival of Asia and the subsequent Lantern Festival in 2000 and Diwali: Festival of Lights in 2002 were pulsar events that played a significant role in collaborative networks that expand across cultures, countries and traditions. The subsequent iterative events have played a vital role in the representation of Asian cultural identity in general and, more specifically, representing of the city’s growing – in both size and cultural diversity – Indian diaspora. Originality/value This research proposes a new conceptual model on festival management and diasporic communities in the Asia-Pacific region. Richards’ and Booth’s conceptual models are used, as a starting point, to offer a new way of considering the importance of looking at collaborative relationships through historical perspectives. The framework explored contributes a new approach to cultural festival network theory and a means to understand the complexity of networks required that engage actors from inside and outside both local and global communities.

The diaspora phenomenon: scholarly assessment and implications for countries and firms

“…At the same time, diaspora' members can exhibit dual cultural identity attributes of both their origin and host cultures. In addition, cultural traditions, heritage attributes, beliefs and festivals play a vital role in the local diasporic cultures (Booth, 2016;Hirschman et al, 2011). For example, religion and related holidays influence diasporic consumption choices abroad (Hirschman et al, 2011).…”

The translocal fluidity of rural grassroots festivals in the network society

“…It is crucial to bear in mind that these concepts are constructed as ideal types and that consequently most actual events will exhibit both iterative and pulsar characteristics. By spelling out the distinction, however, Richards has opened an avenue for empirical research that looks specifically for these characteristics and the relations between them, while also enabling such research to connect with the Castellian framework (for one such example, see Booth, 2016).…”

Event portfolio management: An emerging transdisciplinary field of theory and praxis

“…Social networks like event portfolios should seek to bridge gaps in inter-institutional arrangements by fostering close ties across the entire portfolio, and usually this will be the work of a focal organization that can either adapt to the demands of collaboration or be accepted by all constituents as having sufficient credibility to, at least, begin the process of collaboration. Event researchers have examined networks and inter-organizational links, including papers by Ziakas and Costa (2010) , Izzo, Bonetti, and Masiello (2012) , Van Niekerk (2014) , Jarman, Theodoraki, Hall, and Ali-Knight (2014) , and Booth (2016) . Lessons learned from this line of research include the fact that legitimacy and trust must be earned; another is that the process of portfolio management can increase a community's or destination's capacity to achieve diverse goals and bring cultural or social groups together.…”