Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Korstanje, Maximiliano E.
• Dhariwal, Ekta
• Sharma, Anukrati
• Arora, Shruti
• Hassan, Azizul

Titel

The Terror, the Spectacle, and the Worker: The Role of Security Guards in the Organization of Mega Events and Festivals

Ist Teil von

• Event Tourism and Sustainable Community DevelopmenT, 2024, p.87-101

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Apple Academic Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Terrorism often targets leisure spots and tourist destinations because army forces and police are not taking a direct intervention in these pleasurable spaces. Tourists feel disgusted when they are subjected to countless obtrusive controls. Meanwhile, security officers play a leading role in mediating with foreign tourists while caring for them Unfortunately, they are overexploited or subjected to indignant working conditions. As Professor Howie puts it, this happens because global capitalism expands according to the power of consumers, creating, in this way, some material asymmetries. The most important agents of capitalism are systematically left in a peripheral position. Quite aside from this, security guards play a leading role in ensuring the security and safety of global tourist destinations. Mega-events, such as festivals, sporting events, and royal weddings, are a fertile ground for terrorist attacks. The organization of mega-events includes the hiring of security guards to keep attendees safer. The present chapter synthesizes a part of an ethnography performed in security agencies in Argentina. This chapter focuses on the importance and problems of security guards in the tourism industry. There is a clear dissociation between the importance security guards have and the real working conditions in Argentina. One of the limitations and problems of security guards include excessive working hours, low salaries, and alcoholism (only to name a few) without mentioning the monopoly of security-related agencies to regulate the labor market. Sociologically speaking, although the organization of mega-events is originally to revitalize psychological frustrations, fostering in-group social cohesion it is vital to note how events engender a serious risk for hosting a city because of the attraction for radical cells. In recent years, international terrorism targeted the tourism industry as well as mega festivals and celebrations such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. Events and festivals are primary targets for terrorism because of the negative message distributed to the audience. As Skoll and Korstanje write, the effects of terrorism in public spectacles depend on four variables:, The Threshold of Control This factor shows the degree of control the society may bear or at the best exerts to predict disasters. In author's viewpoint, the private sector, as well as the tourist enter-prises, looks to minimize costs, hiring unprepared and uneducated security guards, in which case cements the possibility to conduct more efficient steps against terrorism.