Knowledge generation in event studies: What can doctoral research tell us about evolution of the field?

Abstract

The growth path of event studies as an emergent field of study has been documented in a number of reviews and summations of the extant literature to study key topics of research interest, identify gaps in the prevailing research agenda, and map progress towards the field gaining academic legitimacy. These studies have focused on the discourse as generally presented in academic journals. As a marker of maturity, no study has yet to examine the discipline bases, topics studied and methods applied in respect of doctoral research in the field. The current examination attempts this, following a tradition of such studies in the related field of tourism. The study interrogated the abstracts of 41 Ph.D. theses conferred by Australian universities over a 20-year period from 1995 and 2015. Content analysis revealed tentative evidence of discipline development in terms of the generation of event-specific knowledge and discipline integration, with sociology the dominant disciplinary influence informing the theses studied. Gaps and opportunities for further advancement of the field are identified.