Events Management
People never forget great events. Reading this, you’ve probably got one in mind, perhaps a festival you went to with a group of friends, a huge sporting event, or even a party at a boutique venu…
Dr Louise Platt
Senior Lecturer in Festival and Event Management
My profile
Biography
I am an interdisciplinary researcher and Senior Lecturer in Festival Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. My research focus is on placemaking and festivity with a particular focus on walking practices, processional cultures, and experiences of festivals and leisure spaces. My work predominantly draws on cultural geography, dance/performance theory, and poststructural philosophy to elucidate a more fluid understanding of place and community using festivity as a lens. I teach festival studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and supports PhD students on festival-related topics.
External examiner roles
External examiner for the University of Manchester
Editorial Board membership
Co-Editor of International Journal of Event and Festival Management
Leisure Studies Journal editorial board member
World Leisure Journal editorial board member
Membership of professional associations
Fellow of the Institute of Place Management.
Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts
Interests and expertise
My research interests include:
Festivals and placemaking
Walking practices and wellbeing
Leisure practices
Qualitative and creative methods.
Projects
Mapping everyday walking of early families: A co-created project (Partnership with Dr. Anna Powell @ University of Huddersfield
Through mapping everyday walking practices of early families (families with preschool aged children), this project seeks to understand the relationship between walking and wellbeing in families in a place-based context. This aligns with the UK Govt levelling-up agenda where place-based solutions for health inequalities and wellbeing benefit local communities not just socially and culturally but also economically. Using creative mapping and mobile methods this project will focus on parents walking with young children, and the relationships that are formed between bodies and spaces, reflecting on varying experiences and interpretations localities. The result will be an artist led workshop with families which will create maps for a final exhibition.
A Manifesto for Walking Mothers: Time, space and leisure of walking with infants
Though walking with a baby as a mother may seem mundane, it is an emotionally and logistically complex practice (Clement and Waitt, 2018) further compounded during the lockdown restrictions in Manchester, UK through 2020/2021. This project, inspired by time-geography (Hägerstrand, 1982) as method, examines how diagramming in comic book form (Carruthers Thomas, 2018) might facilitate a more substantive understanding of walking as a distinctive, spatiotemporal experience of mothering. The aim is to not only use the comic book form as a user-friendly method of research dissemination but also as methodology particularly to experiment with sequence, simultaneity, and subjectivities (Kuttner, Weaver-Hightower and Sousanis, 2021) to examine the gendered spatio-temporal relations revealed through leisure and walking practices for mothers.
Teaching
Level 6:
Events and The Creative City
Contemporary and Strategic Issues in the Events Industry
PhD Students:
I supervise PhD students on topics related to festivals and place.
International Events Management
From festivals and concerts, to conferences and corporate events, this course will give you the professional skills you need to succeed in international events management.
Develop a broad range…
Supervision
I supervise PhD students in the areas of festivals and cultural tourism.
Research outputs
My research interests include: walking, gender, festivals and placemaking
-
Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Courage, C., Borrup, T., Jackson, M.R., Legge, K., McKeown, A., Platt, L., Schupbach, J. (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking. Routledge.
Platt, L., Finkel, R. (2020) Gendered violence at international festivals: An interdisciplinary perspective. Routledge.
Platt, L., Finkel, R. (2019) Gendered violence at international festivals: An interdisciplinary perspective. Routledge.
Lamond, I.R., Platt, L. (2016) Critical Event Studies Approaches to Research. Palgrave Macmillan.
Platt, L. (2016) Critical Event Studies. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
-
Chapters in books
Platt, L., Finkel, R. (2020) 'Gendered violence at international festivals: An interdisciplinary perspective.' In Platt, L., Finkel, R. (ed.) Gendered violence at international festivals: An interdisciplinary perspective. Routledge,
Coyle, T., Platt, L.C. (2018) 'Feminist Politics in the Festival Space.' In Mair, J. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Festivals. Routledge,
Platt, L.C. (2015) 'Transformation and Liverpool European Capital of Culture.' Ideological, Social and Cultural Aspects of Events. CABI,
Platt, L.C. (2014) 'Dealing with the Myths: Injurious Speech and Negative Interpellation in the Construction of Tourism Places.' In Andrews, H.J. (ed.) Tourism and Violence. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing,
-
Media
Platt, L.C., Fletcher, T. (2017) What ‘walkies’ says about your relationship with your dog.
-
Reports
Platt, L., Blaze Trails CIC, More than putting one foot in front of the other: Walking with Babies.
Platt, L. Manifesto for Walking Mums.
Platt, L. (2022) Walking with Babies.
Millington, S., Warnaby, G., Roberts, G., Platt, L., Sonderland Saga, R. (2022) DCMS: Call for Evidence, Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda. UK Parliament.
-
Journal articles
Platt, L. (2023) 'Haecceity of becoming-mother: a diffractive analysis of babywearing through a global pandemic.' Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies,
Calver, J., Dashper, K., Finkel, R., Fletcher, T., Lamond, I.R., May, E., Ormerod, N., Platt, L., Sharpe, B. (2023) 'The (in)visibility of equality, diversity, and inclusion research in event management journals.' Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events,
Platt, L. (2024) 'Walking-with/worlding-with in a global pandemic: a story of mothering in motion.' Area,
Albin-Clark, J., Ovington, J., Ipsom, P., Platt, L., Harding, L., Carley, F., Elwell, A., Nicholl Antipas, P., Pilson, A., Marshall, C., Smith, S. (2023) 'Locking and Unlocking: the potentialities for intra-storying-activism in “this” Baglady collective.' Journal of Posthumanism, 3(3) pp. 251-268.
Platt, L., Abushena, R., Snape, R. (2021) 'Leisure, Religion and the (Infra)Secular City: The Manchester and Salford Whit Walks.' Leisure Studies, 40(6) pp. 826-836.
Platt, L., Medway, D., Steadman, C. (2020) 'Processional walking : theorising the 'place' of movement in notions of dwelling.' Geographical Research, 59(1) pp. 106-117.
Steadman, C., Roberts, G., Medway, D., Millington, S., Platt, L. (2020) '(Re)thinking place atmospheres in marketing theory.' Marketing Theory, 21(1) pp. 135-154.
Platt, L., Finkel, R. (2020) 'Cultural Festivals and the City.' Geography Compass, 14(9) pp. e12498-e12498.
Platt, L., Medway, D. (2020) 'Sometimes… Sometimes… Sometimes… Witnessing urban place-making from the immanence of “the middle”.' Space and Culture, 25(1) pp. 105-120.
Cunningham, I., Platt, L. (2018) 'Bidding for UK City of Culture: Challenges of delivering a bottom-up approach 'in place' for a top-down strategy led scheme.' Journal of Place Management and Development, 13(3) pp. 313-325.
Platt, L., Ali-Knight, J. (2018) 'Guest Editorial.' Journal of Place Management and Development, 11(3) pp. 262-265.
Platt, L.C. (2018) 'Crafting place: Women’s everyday creativity in placemaking processes.' European Journal of Cultural Studies,
Platt, L.C., Finkel, R. (2018) 'Editorial: Special Issue on Equality and Diversity in the Professional Planned Events Sector.' Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 10(2) pp. 113-116.
Platt, L.C. (2017) 'Book Review: Review of Urban Strategies for Culture-Driven Growth: Co-Creating a European Capital of Culture.' Place Branding and Public Diplomacy,
Platt, L.C., Fletcher, T. (2016) '(Just) a walk with the dog? Animal geographies and negotiating walking spaces.' Social and Cultural Geography, 19(2) pp. 211-229.
Platt, L.C. (2014) 'The Wicked Problem of Reflective Practice: A Critical Literature Review.' Innovations in Practice, 9
Platt, L. (2011) 'Liverpool 08 and the performativity of identity.' Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 3(1) pp. 31-43.
-
Non-peer reviewed articles / reviews
-
Conference papers
Platt, L. (2019) 'Processions: relationscapes, movement and space.' In Architecture Humanities Research Association. University of Dundee, 21/11/2019 - 23/11/2019.
Millington, S., Platt, L. (2017) 'Festival Evaluation: Workshop preliminary findings.' In Festival Evaluation. 8/6/2017 - 8/6/2017. Institute of Place Management, pp. 1-12.
Platt, L.C. (2017) 'Processional Dwelling.' In Between Spaces. University of Chichester, 29/6/2017 - 30/6/2017.
Wongsurawat, W. (2016) 'Introduction.' In Workshop on Sites of Modernity - Asian Cities and their Evolution through Trade, Colonialism, and Nationalism. 1. Bangkok, THAILAND, 7/2011 - Wongsurawat, W. (ed.) SPRINGER, pp. 1-8.
Platt, L.C. (2015) 'Mundane Leisure Practice in the Creation of Civic Radicalism.' In Leisure Studies Association. University of Bournemouth, 7/7/2015 - 9/7/2015.
Platt, L.C., Fletcher, T. (2014) 'Who's Walking Who: The Everyday Dog Walking Experience.' In Centre for Human Animal Studies. Edge Hill University, 25/10/2014 - 25/10/2014.
Platt, L.C. (2014) '‘Informal ping-pong’: New narratives of resistance and the cultural politics of recreational play space.' In Leisure Studies Association. University of the West of Scotland, 7/7/2014 - 7/7/2014.
Platt, L.C. (2013) '…a proper Scouser. Problematising Identities in an over 55s housing complex.' In IUEAS. University of Manchester, 5/8/2013 - 5/8/2013.