ABSTRACT
This thesis considers the relationship between practices, communities and
continuity in intermittent organisational arrangements. Cultural festivals are argued to
offer one such particularly rich and nuanced research context; within this study their
potential to transcend intermittent enactment emerged as a significant avenue of
enquiry. The engagement of organisation studies with theories of practice has produced
a rich practice-based corpus, diverse in both theoretical concerns and empirical
approaches to the study of practice. Nevertheless, continuity presents an, as yet, under-
theorised aspect of this field. Thus, the central questions of this thesis concern: the
practices that underpin the enactment of festivals; the themes emerging from these
practices for further consideration; and relationships between festivals and the wider
context within which they are enacted. These issues were explored empirically through
a qualitative study of the enactment of a community-centred film festival. Following
from the adoption of a ‘practice-lens approach’, this study yielded forty-eight practices,
through which to explore five themes emerging from analysis: Safeguarding,
Legitimising, Gatekeeping, Connecting and Negotiating Boundaries. This study
revealed an aspect of the wider field of practice that has not yet been fully examined by
practice-based studies: the cementing or anchoring mechanisms that contribute to
temporal continuity in intermittent, temporary or project-based organisations. The
findings of this thesis suggest a processual model, which collectively reinforces an
organisational memory that survives periods of latency and facilitates the re-emergence
of practice, thus potentially enabling organisations to endure across intermittent
enactment and, ultimately, transcend temporality and ephemerality. The themes
examined and insights offered in this thesis seek to contribute to: practice-based studies
and film-festival studies; forging a new path linking these two disciplines; and
generating both theoretical and practical insights of interest to festival organisers and
stakeholders of project-based, temporary or intermittent organisational arrangements.
-2-
, Chapter I: Introduction
Building upon seminal texts by Caves (2000), Florida (2002) and Hesmondhalgh
(2002), examination of the creative industries [hereafter CI] is now a thriving field of
management research. The CI exhibit unique dimensions for scholarly analysis and
offer alternative vistas from which to consider organisational phenomena. This thesis
argues that festivals in particular, characterised by intermittent enactment, present an
inherently complex organisational form that ultimately offers a rich and nuanced
research context. This thesis will also illuminate how cultural festivals hold a central
and multifaceted social, cultural, political and economic role and, as with the CI more
generally, ‘exert an extraordinary influence on our values, our attitudes, and our life
styles’ (Lampel et al., 2000: 263).
Echoing a wider ‘practice turn’ within organisation studies (Eikeland &
Nicolini, 2011: 165), the adoption of a practice-based approach was considered apt in
the exploration of such a multifarious and seemingly ‘temporary’ organisational form.
A ‘practice-lens’ was selected in order to both elicit a rich data set and, given the
complex institutional context within which festivals are enacted, to also bring the
relationships and connections that criss-cross such organisations to the fore. Indeed,
practice presents a productive framework through which to interpret the ‘meaning-
making, identity-forming and order-producing activities’ at play within any organisation
(Nicolini, 2011: 602). Furthermore, the interrelations between practices and also
between practice and its wider institutional/societal context are explored herein as a
promising area of study. These activities, relationships and other emergent issues were
explored empirically through a qualitative study of the enactment of a community-
centred film festival: the 26th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival [hereafter
LLGFF], held annually at the British Film Institute [hereafter BFI].
Following from the analysis presented within this study, this thesis will argue
that festivals are characterised by intermittent enactment, cultural exchange and intricate
multi-layered and multifarious networks of practice and agents. Festival scholars such
as Rüling and Pederson (2010) and Iordanova (2009) have previously noted the
potential lack of ‘permanence’ that results from a festival’s status/enactment as a
temporary organisation. Yet, until now, the processes that bolster continuity have
remained relatively unexplored. Furthermore, temporary organisations have been
- 16 -
, Chapter I: Introduction
highlighted as understudied within organisation studies (Bechky, 2006). Thus, this
thesis considers the relationship between practices, communities and continuity in such
intermittent organisational arrangements, and the central questions of this thesis
concern: the enactment of festivals (as temporary organisations); the processes that
underpin their continued enactment; the cementing and anchoring mechanisms that
bolster continuity; and the relationship between the festival and its constituent
communities and wider institutional context.
This research project adopted an interpretivist approach and, paralleling many
contemporary practice-based studies, an ensemble of data-collection techniques (semi-
structured interviews, observation and artefact-collation) was employed. This ten-day
festival attracted around 21000 attendees and fieldwork was primarily conducted during
the festival itself, from Friday 23 March 2012 to Sunday 1 April 2012. The period
considered in the collation of documents and artefacts, however, extended from 1 March
2011 to 30 April 2012 in order to examine a full ‘festival year’. Inductive iterative
coding, clustering and analysis of transcribed and collated data yielded an assemblage
of forty-eight practices. Practice is temporal, situated, embedded in the research context
(Gomez & Bounty, 2011: 934) and irreducible to a collection of discrete entities. Thus,
as will be discussed, following from a ‘practice-lens’ approach, the initial research aim
was not to explore an a priori designated line of enquiry but, rather, to develop
categorisations of practices that would elicit emergent themes through which to explore
these practices and their interconnections. Through examination of the five themes
generated — Safeguarding, Legitimising, Gatekeeping, Connecting and Negotiating
Boundaries — the embedded and relational nature of practice emerges for and becomes
subject to scholarly analysis, rather than the closed identification of discrete de-
contextualised practices.
The annual iteration of the LLGFF could be described in terms of a succession
of film screenings and industry, community or film-related events. However, such a
narrow interpretation of the LLGFF — as a series of discrete events or singular
iterations — belies the complex wider organisation of the festival and its permanence,
as opposed to transience, in both space and time. Through the tracing of the forty-eight
practices identified, this thesis has revealed an aspect of the wider field of practice that
- 17 -
, Chapter I: Introduction
has not yet been fully examined by practice-based studies: the cementing or anchoring
mechanisms that contribute to temporal continuity in intermittent, temporary or project-
based organisations. The practices identified and presented herein constitute a
processual model conceptualised as presenting five robust and indispensible strands
(relating to the five themes explored — Safeguarding, Legitimising, Gatekeeping,
Connecting and Negotiating Boundaries and most concretely grounded in the practices
and activities of safeguarding). These strands of activity and understandings collectively
reinforce an organisational memory that survives periods of latency and facilitates the
re-emergence of practice, thus enabling organisations to endure across intermittent
enactment and, ultimately, to transcend temporality and ephemerality. Furthermore, this
thesis has illuminated the significance of the festival as an archiver of and conduit for
queer culture, and also how the enactment of the practices identified herein have a
generative affect upon the queer-film industry, the wider LGBTQ community and the
festival itself.
The themes examined and insights offered in this thesis seek to contribute to:
theoretical bodies of literature within practice-based studies and film-festival studies;
forging a new path linking these two disciplines; and generating both theoretical and
practical insights of interest to the research site, film-festival organisers, those charged
with staging festivals more generally, and stakeholders of project-based or temporary
organisations.
The structure and organisation of this thesis is outlined below.
‘Chapter II: Literature Review’ begins with an introductory description of the
researcher’s journey towards the research site. The remainder of the chapter
considers the two central bodies of literature that underpin this thesis and is
accordingly divided into two major sections. The first provides a contextual
literature review relating to the research site, presenting material relevant to the
consideration of festivals, film-festivals and community-centred festivals. The
second offers a critical overview of the principal theoretical lens utilised in this
study: theories of practice.
‘Chapter III: Methodology’ elucidates the methodological approach adopted in
this study, elaborating upon: the research context, aims and strategy; the
- 18 -
This thesis considers the relationship between practices, communities and
continuity in intermittent organisational arrangements. Cultural festivals are argued to
offer one such particularly rich and nuanced research context; within this study their
potential to transcend intermittent enactment emerged as a significant avenue of
enquiry. The engagement of organisation studies with theories of practice has produced
a rich practice-based corpus, diverse in both theoretical concerns and empirical
approaches to the study of practice. Nevertheless, continuity presents an, as yet, under-
theorised aspect of this field. Thus, the central questions of this thesis concern: the
practices that underpin the enactment of festivals; the themes emerging from these
practices for further consideration; and relationships between festivals and the wider
context within which they are enacted. These issues were explored empirically through
a qualitative study of the enactment of a community-centred film festival. Following
from the adoption of a ‘practice-lens approach’, this study yielded forty-eight practices,
through which to explore five themes emerging from analysis: Safeguarding,
Legitimising, Gatekeeping, Connecting and Negotiating Boundaries. This study
revealed an aspect of the wider field of practice that has not yet been fully examined by
practice-based studies: the cementing or anchoring mechanisms that contribute to
temporal continuity in intermittent, temporary or project-based organisations. The
findings of this thesis suggest a processual model, which collectively reinforces an
organisational memory that survives periods of latency and facilitates the re-emergence
of practice, thus potentially enabling organisations to endure across intermittent
enactment and, ultimately, transcend temporality and ephemerality. The themes
examined and insights offered in this thesis seek to contribute to: practice-based studies
and film-festival studies; forging a new path linking these two disciplines; and
generating both theoretical and practical insights of interest to festival organisers and
stakeholders of project-based, temporary or intermittent organisational arrangements.
-2-
, Chapter I: Introduction
Building upon seminal texts by Caves (2000), Florida (2002) and Hesmondhalgh
(2002), examination of the creative industries [hereafter CI] is now a thriving field of
management research. The CI exhibit unique dimensions for scholarly analysis and
offer alternative vistas from which to consider organisational phenomena. This thesis
argues that festivals in particular, characterised by intermittent enactment, present an
inherently complex organisational form that ultimately offers a rich and nuanced
research context. This thesis will also illuminate how cultural festivals hold a central
and multifaceted social, cultural, political and economic role and, as with the CI more
generally, ‘exert an extraordinary influence on our values, our attitudes, and our life
styles’ (Lampel et al., 2000: 263).
Echoing a wider ‘practice turn’ within organisation studies (Eikeland &
Nicolini, 2011: 165), the adoption of a practice-based approach was considered apt in
the exploration of such a multifarious and seemingly ‘temporary’ organisational form.
A ‘practice-lens’ was selected in order to both elicit a rich data set and, given the
complex institutional context within which festivals are enacted, to also bring the
relationships and connections that criss-cross such organisations to the fore. Indeed,
practice presents a productive framework through which to interpret the ‘meaning-
making, identity-forming and order-producing activities’ at play within any organisation
(Nicolini, 2011: 602). Furthermore, the interrelations between practices and also
between practice and its wider institutional/societal context are explored herein as a
promising area of study. These activities, relationships and other emergent issues were
explored empirically through a qualitative study of the enactment of a community-
centred film festival: the 26th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival [hereafter
LLGFF], held annually at the British Film Institute [hereafter BFI].
Following from the analysis presented within this study, this thesis will argue
that festivals are characterised by intermittent enactment, cultural exchange and intricate
multi-layered and multifarious networks of practice and agents. Festival scholars such
as Rüling and Pederson (2010) and Iordanova (2009) have previously noted the
potential lack of ‘permanence’ that results from a festival’s status/enactment as a
temporary organisation. Yet, until now, the processes that bolster continuity have
remained relatively unexplored. Furthermore, temporary organisations have been
- 16 -
, Chapter I: Introduction
highlighted as understudied within organisation studies (Bechky, 2006). Thus, this
thesis considers the relationship between practices, communities and continuity in such
intermittent organisational arrangements, and the central questions of this thesis
concern: the enactment of festivals (as temporary organisations); the processes that
underpin their continued enactment; the cementing and anchoring mechanisms that
bolster continuity; and the relationship between the festival and its constituent
communities and wider institutional context.
This research project adopted an interpretivist approach and, paralleling many
contemporary practice-based studies, an ensemble of data-collection techniques (semi-
structured interviews, observation and artefact-collation) was employed. This ten-day
festival attracted around 21000 attendees and fieldwork was primarily conducted during
the festival itself, from Friday 23 March 2012 to Sunday 1 April 2012. The period
considered in the collation of documents and artefacts, however, extended from 1 March
2011 to 30 April 2012 in order to examine a full ‘festival year’. Inductive iterative
coding, clustering and analysis of transcribed and collated data yielded an assemblage
of forty-eight practices. Practice is temporal, situated, embedded in the research context
(Gomez & Bounty, 2011: 934) and irreducible to a collection of discrete entities. Thus,
as will be discussed, following from a ‘practice-lens’ approach, the initial research aim
was not to explore an a priori designated line of enquiry but, rather, to develop
categorisations of practices that would elicit emergent themes through which to explore
these practices and their interconnections. Through examination of the five themes
generated — Safeguarding, Legitimising, Gatekeeping, Connecting and Negotiating
Boundaries — the embedded and relational nature of practice emerges for and becomes
subject to scholarly analysis, rather than the closed identification of discrete de-
contextualised practices.
The annual iteration of the LLGFF could be described in terms of a succession
of film screenings and industry, community or film-related events. However, such a
narrow interpretation of the LLGFF — as a series of discrete events or singular
iterations — belies the complex wider organisation of the festival and its permanence,
as opposed to transience, in both space and time. Through the tracing of the forty-eight
practices identified, this thesis has revealed an aspect of the wider field of practice that
- 17 -
, Chapter I: Introduction
has not yet been fully examined by practice-based studies: the cementing or anchoring
mechanisms that contribute to temporal continuity in intermittent, temporary or project-
based organisations. The practices identified and presented herein constitute a
processual model conceptualised as presenting five robust and indispensible strands
(relating to the five themes explored — Safeguarding, Legitimising, Gatekeeping,
Connecting and Negotiating Boundaries and most concretely grounded in the practices
and activities of safeguarding). These strands of activity and understandings collectively
reinforce an organisational memory that survives periods of latency and facilitates the
re-emergence of practice, thus enabling organisations to endure across intermittent
enactment and, ultimately, to transcend temporality and ephemerality. Furthermore, this
thesis has illuminated the significance of the festival as an archiver of and conduit for
queer culture, and also how the enactment of the practices identified herein have a
generative affect upon the queer-film industry, the wider LGBTQ community and the
festival itself.
The themes examined and insights offered in this thesis seek to contribute to:
theoretical bodies of literature within practice-based studies and film-festival studies;
forging a new path linking these two disciplines; and generating both theoretical and
practical insights of interest to the research site, film-festival organisers, those charged
with staging festivals more generally, and stakeholders of project-based or temporary
organisations.
The structure and organisation of this thesis is outlined below.
‘Chapter II: Literature Review’ begins with an introductory description of the
researcher’s journey towards the research site. The remainder of the chapter
considers the two central bodies of literature that underpin this thesis and is
accordingly divided into two major sections. The first provides a contextual
literature review relating to the research site, presenting material relevant to the
consideration of festivals, film-festivals and community-centred festivals. The
second offers a critical overview of the principal theoretical lens utilised in this
study: theories of practice.
‘Chapter III: Methodology’ elucidates the methodological approach adopted in
this study, elaborating upon: the research context, aims and strategy; the
- 18 -
