Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between the study of urban places and events as part of the wider contribution of urban studies to events. Events were previously largely ignored by urban scholars, as ephemera with little impact on urban processes and structures. Recently more attention has been focused on events as strategic tools in urban policies, particularly with the rise of eventful city strategies. Events have become a more significant force in urban policy, which now often include a wide range of event-based policy aims, including economic, social, cultural and image change. This chapter reviews the development of eventful cities strategies, and the new centrality of temporality and eventfulness, drawing on examples from the cities of Barcelona, Austin and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.