Editor: Dr Thomas Fletcher, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Families remain the cornerstone of most liberal, western democracies, but questions regarding ‘what we do’ as families and how we ‘perform’ and ‘display’ family in fairly routine and day-to-day contexts (i.e., events) is not necessarily well understood. The choices made, and who makes them, reflect the ways in which families draw upon, reinforce and rewrite their value systems and identities. Indeed, the ways families use space and time (and what activities they fill these with) reflect the values of family members, as well as the social contexts they inhabit in terms of work, education, leisure, and the requirements of wider culture. That is to say that to talk of ‘the family’ as a monolith is to potentially limit the richness and diversity of contemporary families. Indeed, much of the work on families over the last decade has argued for a move away from conceptualising ‘the family’ as a structure to which people have an affinity and sense of belonging, towards understanding families as constituted by activities, actions and relationships, which take on meaning at a particular point in time.
Family events: Practices, intimacies and displays will thus use events as a context through which we can explore families, family intimacies, family performances and family displays. It is my contention that how families come to be and moreover, come to be defined as ‘families’ relies on events; whether that be via what might be termed ‘family events’ (events experienced as a family – e.g., weddings, funerals or holidays) or ‘events for the family’ (events targeting families – e.g., family festivals, family days).
The book aims to bring together contributions from scholars globally from a number of academic fields, including event studies, sociology, cultural studies, geography, sport and leisure, tourism, among others, which focus on a variety of different event contexts. It will also aim to capture the diversity of family forms (e.g., lone-parent, reconstituted, gay/non-traditional) which hitherto are rarely considered within a single volume.
Chapter proposals are invited covering a range of issues including, but not limited to:
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- Conceptualising family events
- Family diversity
- Leisure/sports events
- Religious events
- Tourism as family event(s)
- Family performances
- Family displays
- Family intimacies
- Parents/parenting/parenthood
- Grandparents/grandparenting/grandparenthood
- Family separation and family time
- Children and young people’s experiences of family and family events
- Friendships
- Family histories
- Family events, memories and memory making
- Family traditions and heritage
- Family identities
Chapter proposals are invited to be sent to the editor at t.e.fletcher@leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Proposals should include chapter title, a 500-word synopsis of the chapter content (topic, focus, empirical or conceptual basis, and core argument), author(s) name and affiliation, and 100-word author bio.
The editor would be very happy to chat through ideas prior to submission.
Contribution details and timelines
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- Submission of chapter proposals: 02 December 2019
- Notification of acceptance: 10 January 2020
- Submission of full chapters: 31 July 2020
- Revised chapter submissions: 30 September 2020
- Chapters should be a maximum of 7000 words (including references) and will be subject to peer review.
About the editor
Dr Thomas Fletcher is Reader in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University, UK. His primary research interests relate to families and equality and diversity in sport, leisure and events. He is the author of Negotiating fatherhood: sport and family practices (2019). He is editor of Cricket, migration and diasporic communities (2015), and co-editor of Sport, leisure and social justice (2017), Sex integration in sport and physical culture (2017), Diversity, equity and inclusion in sport and leisure (2014) and Sports events, society and culture (2014). Tom is on the editorial boards of Leisure Studies, Sociological Research Online, Sport in Society and Soccer & Society where he is Reviews Editor. He is also Chair of the Leisure Studies Association.
