Assessing residents’ perceptions of urban placemaking prior to hosting a major cultural event
International Journal of Event and Festival Management
ISSN: 1758-2954
Article publication date: 3 December 2020
Issue publication date: 19 January 2021
Abstract
Purpose
More research is needed to consider residents’ perceptions prior to hosting large-scale events. This paper contributes new insight on residents’ perceptions of placemaking analysed by considering awareness, enthusiasm and participation prior to hosting a large-scale event. Placemaking is becoming increasingly important and this insight can help planners understand how locals perceive change and event planning preparations.
Design/methodology/approach
454 residents of Rijeka, Croatia completed a survey (seven-point Likert scale) of 17 placemaking principles, asked in three ways: (1) how you feel; (2) how you believe people near you feel and (3) if you feel that planning/preparing for ECoC 2020 has made a difference. The data analysis considers socio-demographics and the significance of awareness, enthusiasm and participation as factors affecting residents’ perceptions of placemaking.
Findings
The study found respondents originally from Rijeka expressed statistically significant higher level of agreement. Where statistically significant differences exist, female respondents expressed statistically significant higher levels of agreement. For six statements, the distribution of results was not similar for all age groups. Awareness and enthusiasm seems to influence placemaking principles to a greater extent than participation in this study, but all have proven to have statistically significant positive impacts on the placemaking principles assessed.
Practical implications
Planners need to focus on effective promotional activities aimed at awareness and enhance enthusiasm to help increase perceptions of placemaking and increase local quality of life.
Originality/value
explores perceptions of “self” and “how others feel” by assessing principles of placemaking associated with the case of Rijeka. This allows researchers to explore understandings of how people perceive the attitudes of their fellow residents.
Keywords
Citation
Wise, N., Đurkin Badurina, J. and Perić, M. (2021), "Assessing residents’ perceptions of urban placemaking prior to hosting a major cultural event", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 51-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-04-2020-0020
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited