Researching from the Inside: Autoethnography and Critical Event Studies
Events are experiences. There has been growing attention paid to concepts like 'experiential marketing' within the field of events management and event studies, but there has been less focus on how groups and individuals experience events from personal and social perspectives. Autoethnography is a useful research method to begin to address this gap. Autoethnography allows the researcher to use highly personal, often emotional and (hopefully) evocative accounts to try and engage the reader in the event experience. Personal stories can be powerful ways in which to discuss wider social issues and have the potential to enrich critical event studies by providing alternative and revealing accounts of events.