A glowing future? A sustainability transitions approach to ephemeral light festivals in the United Kingdom

About the Project

Sustainability transitions have become an important and promising research agenda with a clear focus on energy, transport, and food systems (Köhler et al., 2019). Recent developments in tourism geographies, however, have demonstrated the usefulness of integrating the sustainability transitions research agenda with tourism studies (see Niewiadomski and Brouder, 2022). As a result, opportunities have emerged to apply key concepts and frameworks from the former in the study of different forms of tourism.

For instance, Flood Chavez et al. (2024) used a multi-level perspective (MLP) to assess the ongoing sustainability transitions of a wine-tourism destination while Booyens et al. (2024) explored the relationship between tourism and energy transitions. Despite this interest, significant gaps remain in applying and understanding sustainability transitions across different tourism and recreation contexts. One specific example is ephemeral light festivals, which despite their prominence as an economic and cultural strategy used – mainly – by cities worldwide, have received little attention.

Ephemeral light festivals are increasingly popular across the United Kingdom (UK), featured not only in urban areas (e.g. Spectra in Aberdeen, Bridges of Light in Worcester, Light Up in Lancaster) but also in places isolated from urban areas (e.g. The Enchanted Forest in Pitlochry, Brodie Illuminated in Aberdeenshire, Wondrous Woods in Edinburgh).

While these festivals are often framed as innovative and culturally meaningful strategies to attract visitors during off-peak seasons, improve destinations’ image, foster proximity to ‘nature’, and promote residents’ pride (see e.g. Camprubi and Coromina, 2019; Lovell, 2024), their potential to lead to mass tourism, trigger negative reactions from residents, or homogenising the tourism experience (see e.g. Camprubi and Coromina, 2019; Giordano and Ong, 2017; Quinn, 2005), requires deeper analysis. Such an analysis must grasp the complex nature of these types of festivals within the context of sustainable tourism. The aim of this PhD is to contribute to the growing agenda of sustainability transitions in tourism.

This PhD will use a sustainability transitions approach to analyse ephemeral light festivals in the UK paying attention to their nature (e.g. temporary, recurrent, innovative, meaningful) and their potential to promote sustainability transitions in the areas they take place. As such, building on sustainability transitions research and tourism geographies, this PhD will aim to answer the following research questions:

• How do the challenges to ephemeral light festivals in the UK and the emerging responses to them influence their sustainability?
• To what extent does the nature of ephemeral light festivals (e.g. temporary, recurrent, innovative, meaningful) contribute to or hinder their transition to more sustainable tourism scenarios?
• How do ephemeral light festivals in the UK influence sustainability transitions in the regions they take place?

It is expected that the PhD will involve extensive domestic travel and brief but frequent periods of fieldwork across different light festivals in the UK to conduct interviews and other qualitative – or quantitative – methods. The cost of this to the PhD candidate is likely to be in the region of £4,000.

• Director of Studies: Dr David Flood Chavez
• Supervisors: Prof Alan Dixon
• Research Group: Sustainable Environments Research Group