Geographies of field-configuring events

Abstract

This paper treats the concept of ‘field-configuring events’ (FCE) and relates it to economic geographical research. The FCE approach attempts to draw attention to the role of events in fields of economic and social action and suggests that events can be important to introducing, structuring, maintaining and configuring new products, industrial standards, cultural artefacts and knowledge categories. The FCE approach has primarily been used to study the actors and networks associated with events such as trade shows, professional gatherings, technology contests, cultural tournaments, industrial exhibitions and business ceremonies: events where actors assemble to reveal novel products, develop industry designs, initiate cultural trends, create social networks, and allocate meaning to previously unfamiliar circumstances. In this introductory paper, we identify the main research trajectories in FCE and link these to economic geography by identifying some common lines of thinking apparent in economic geography, management and organisational studies. The paper moves on to investigate the nature of the “field”, “configuration” and “events” from a geographic perspective, and to emphasize the role that space and power play as a structuring mechanisms in all three. We conclude that the FCE approach can function as a useful tool for geographical analysis of the increasing fluid and episodic contours of the contemporary space economy.