Book chapter: “Searching for Sites of Liminality in “Giga” Events: Developing a Conceptual Framework” (Kirby and Duignan)

Giga-events disrupt urban communities and businesses rendering vulnerable social groups marginalised, unable to leverage economic benefits. We focus on event visitor economies during the ‘live staging’ between the Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremony. Giga-events are managed to redirect visitor economic consumption from small business communities towards official sites of corporate consumption. Using this critique of large-scale events, the burgeoning accounts of liminality are used to disrupt and provide a potential antidote.