The Legacies of Volunteering. A study about the impacts of Sporting Events in volunteers and local community (PHDBU003)

Volunteering has been one of the main topics studied recently in events management. Many are the publications about volunteering, specifically in relation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games published and focusing specifically on the motivational factors (Fairley et al. 2007; Karkatsoulis et al. 2005; Reeser et al. 2005). However there is not much about the impacts these volunteering activities can have after the event. Indeed, it is known that volunteering can contribute to the development of sense of pride and enhance the identity of local communities (Kim et al 2010) but this post-event aspect has not been further explored in the sport events/tourism literature.

Many publications can be found about the planning, historical development, economic, and environmental impacts and well as the legacies left in the host nations by the Mega Sporting Events (Zhou and Ap 2009; Minnaert 2012) but the literature about the legacies and contributions of volunteering is still limited.

The aim of this research is to better understand the volunteering activity and its consequences in Sport Events. This study will identify different sporting events in UK, their use of volunteers and the consequences and legacies of volunteering. The results from this research will lead to a better understanding of the after-event legacies related to volunteering as well as possible recommendations on how to optimise the benefits from volunteering.