Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere by Gerard Delanty, L... - 9780415714969

Festivals and the Cultural Public SphereAuthor(s): Gerard Delanty, Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9780415714969, 978-0415714969\nSynopsis\nFestivals and the Cultural Public Sphere provides the first major social scientific study of these festivals in the wake of their explosion in popularity over the past decade. It explores the cultural significance of contemporary arts festivals from their location within the cultural public sphere, examining them as sites for contestation and democratic debate, and also identifying them as examples of a particular aesthetic cosmopolitanism.\n\nThe book approaches contemporary festivals as relatively autonomous social texts that need interpretation and contextualisation. This perspective, combined with a diversified set of theoretical approaches and research methods, and guided by a common thematic rationale, places the volume squarely within some.