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Olympic Urbanism and Olympic Villages: Planning Strategies in Olympic Host Cities, London 1908 to London 2012
... Baade Source: Flyvbjerg & Stewart (2012) Proponents of the event strive to promote their events using simple, media-friendly and eye-catching slogans, addressing to a desirable outcome of the event. Examples are 'One World, One Dream' (Beijing, 2008), 'KeNako: Celebrate Africa's Humanity' (2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa), 'Share the Spirit' (Sydney, 2000) and 'Inspire a Generation' (London, 2012). From an event marketing perspective the usage of a catchy slogan is understandable, but it risks promising too much as the event is presented as a solution to economic or social challenges. ...
... Although the Barcelona city council had promised to include subsidised housing in the post-Games Olympic Village, it gave in to pressure from real estate developers, and ultimately all except 76 of the 6,000 units had been sold at market value to middle-income professionals. Overall, from 1986 to 1992, new house prices in Barcelona had risen by 250 per cent (Lenskyi, 2010;Muñoz, 2006). The same issue might arise in Glasgow. ...
... Although the following statement refers to the 1992 Games in Barcelona, it also applicable to other mega events: "Finding the equilibrium between success in the global arena and solutions for local social problems is (…) the main challenge for the city." (Muñoz, 2006). ...
Governments need to play a role in enhancing integrity. National governments can use their influence to
warrant that the four dimensions for organisational integrity described in this report are being met.
Governments need to support their national federations, and need to be explicit on their own criteria
for becoming involved. The EU needs to use its resources to establish common ground among nations
and the international sport movement; to exchange best practices; to initiate research; and to
formulate guidelines. These are the actions that are needed to restore faith in the integrity of major
and mega sport events.
... The murals were part of a growing trend in US cities to rely on public art to spur economic revitalization and foster profitable place distinction ( Miles and Adams, 1989;Deutsche, 1996;Lippard, 1997). As a visual manifestation of 'Olympic urbanism' ( Liao and Pitts, 2006;Muñoz, 2006), the Olympic murals provided just that. But given the amount of writing on LA by members of the LA School ( Nicholls, 2011), in addition to the attention the city has received from scholars internationally, it is striking that LA's Olympic urbanism-the large-scale and often contentious planning and development that accompanies the hosting of the Olympic Games-has received little attention in the urban literature ( Chalkley and Essex, 1999;Hiller, 2000;Andranovich et al., 2001;Gold and Gold, 2008;Chen et al., 2013). ...
... As with other types of civic stewardship, the bureaucracy involved with permitting and preserving sanctioned murals is daunting. Unlike neoliberal, public-private sector and mega-event development, unprofitable-that is, often cultural-forms of urban development that do not possess clearly articulable 'spectacle as an added value' are often subject to first rounds of disinvestment and the most severe form of dereliction ( Harvey, 1985;Jakle and Wilson, 1992;Zukin 1993;Muñoz, 2006: 177). Because LA's form of Olympic urbanism in 1984 was largely arts based, the city has struggled, or has been unwilling, to preserve its Olympic heritage. ...
... The Olympic Games form a crucial intervention in the urban development of the hosting city, which goes far beyond the sportive aims and entails a wide spectrum of economic, cultural, environmental and social change. Muñoz (2006) goes as far as to state that the current politics of urbanization cannot be understood fully without considering the contribution of major urban mega-events. With global events impinging on local decision-making, the Olympic Games and other mega-events turn urban politics into urban geopolitics. ...
... There were extensive investments in transport infrastructure, such as metro, coastal railway, and airport, but also in housing, hotel rooms and office development, and in cultural provisions. Probably most symbolic of its long-lasting legacy has been the extension to a metropolitan waterfront and, in particular, the public access to five kilometers of coastline and new beaches (Gold and Gold, 2008), which was at that time a very deprived and inaccessible area, despite being close to the historic center (Muñoz, 2006). The core of the Barcelona approach has been said to include strong and long-term visioning, an emphasis on urban design as much as on well-funded social programs (Coaffee, 2011). ...
... In addition, host cities have increasingly addressed the objective of social benefits such as enhancing confidence and self-esteem, empowering disadvantaged groups with employment and income, and improving the capacity of the community to take the initiative (Long & Sanderson, 2001). The Barcelona experience clearly shows how Olympics can represent new opportunities for host cities in dealing with the reinforcement of higher social integration (Munoz, 2006). ...
... An ongoing process of gentrification and the 'brandification' of urban space worked together to reinforce the lack of diversity in many urban areas. For example, touristic promotion has served to link some urban areas either directly or indirectly with tourism, thus diminishing the goal of a diversified and integrated city, in both urban and social terms (Munoz, 2006). Furthermore, despite that many of the Olympic investments in Barcelona were for the city's population as a whole, some citizens feared that regular schemes or programmes that were not part of the overall Olympic plans would obtain less funding. ...
Mega-event strategies and their impact on the development of host cities have drawn increasing interest as they have become part of wider city development strategies. Studies of mega-event strategies have tended to focus on a single perspective such as economic rationale and impact. As greater attention is paid to their long-term impact, there is a need for more comprehensive evaluation combining economic, social and environmental perspectives, and assessing the management of competing objectives. This paper proposes a comprehensive analytical framework for examining the multiple long-term impacts of mega-events on host cities. It illustrates the use of the framework through two examples of the Summer Olympics as the archetypal mega-event.
... The business-friendly (Camerin, 2019), Florida-inspired (Muñoz, 2006) Diagonal Mar in Barcelona ( Figure 4)-next to the event-led Parc del Fòrum development-is an example. Its anyplace character is in stark contrast with previous waterfront redevelopment schemes implemented in the city. ...
Since the second half of the twentieth century, when maritime practices began migrating outside their traditional central city areas, urban regeneration at the water’s edge has been one of the key issues in port cities’ planning agendas. Waterfronts in port cities have become strategic areas for a range of reasons, such as economic growth, city branding, and addressing housing pressures. However, recent studies also show how their transformation is now more profoundly influenced by hypermobile capital and global finance, and by broad sustainability concerns. The established narrative of waterfront redevelopment as a response to weakening port‐city relationships no longer necessarily represents the present of all port cities, as more nuanced accounts are needed. With examples from Europe and across the world, this article reflects on waterfront redevelopment practices, by building on existing attempts to provide typologies and periodise the history of this phenomenon and focussing on the key approaches emerging in the last decades. It is argued that today’s approaches to waterfront redevelopment, and ultimately contemporary relationships between ports and cities, are changing and possibly differentiating from the “port out, city in” rationale underpinning past schemes. Current practices appear to be ranging from the wholesale transformation of redundant waterfronts into neoliberal urban spaces for consumption and capital accumulation to more “fine‐grained” planning strategies to build more (environmentally, but also economically, socially, and culturally) sustainable urban waterfronts by integrating or restoring port‐related activities within mixed‐used areas.
... These projects often involve complex and expensive regeneration of degraded brownfields or industrial plots on waterfronts (Pinto & Lopes dos Santos, 2022) that will potentially become prime areas of the city for local image creation, city branding and real estate marketing (Ponzini, 2011). Their final urban and architectural outcomes are particularly unique in establishing a relationship between urbanism and the communication of a specific urban image in a new model of urban intervention -"Olympic urbanism" -that finds its pinnacle in the design of the Olympic village (Muñoz, 2006;Viehoff & Poynter, 2016). ...
The Olympics are powerful tools to catalyse development, many times through “starchitecture” or “Olympic urbanism” strategies regenerating degraded urban areas in prime city zones. However, that often brings adverse social effects, namely displacement and gentrification. Hosts have been pressured to mitigate such effects, but the strict Olympic Games financial model severely constrains hosts' opportunities. Moreover, resorting to private sector funding is a difficult task, except for the construction of accommodation facilities as, in the context of the Games, land and property values tend to be highly speculative. Implementing value capture mechanisms can prove valuable to mitigate the event's social impacts, but this solution is difficult to implement and reduces the Games' economic value. The application of value capture in the Games' context seems to be a gap in the literature and, thus, this research introduces such a concept to Olympic studies, highlighting how it can be particularly valuable given the unique characteristics of Olympic projects. Resorting to a literature review, the argument is built around three lines of thought evidencing the paradoxes of combining social responsibility with the mega-event strategy to draw a pathway for possible applications of value capture that account for such paradox when mitigating Games-related social injustices.
... The denomination of the Olympic territory is related to the control of the symbols of the territory: Olympic stadium, Olympic square, Olympic Village, Olympic track, etc. These symbols over time will inevitably change shape and specific weight of their involvement and performance over the years (Muñoz 1996(Muñoz , 2006. Throughout Olympic history, these symbols have sometimes been renamed in the post-Olympic period for the exploitation of the sponsor's brand offering the most long-term contributions. ...
The Olympic legacy, whether temporary or transitory, can manifest itself before, during or after the Games. It can quickly disappear after the event if efforts are not made to keep it alive through, for example, cultural programming, new environmental legislation, public awareness programming or new, more comprehensive applications. The study has the objective of recounting the Olympic legacy of the Torino 2006 Games through the results of the qualitative interviews held with the main actors of the event. In recent years, the Olympic legacy and the planning of the Olympic legacy have become increasingly important in the choice of host cities. The importance has allowed many cities, such as London, Sydney, and Tokyo, to develop an entity in charge of planning and managing the post-Olympic legacy. The intangible possibility of training and involving new profiles in the territory is fundamental to managing the Olympic structures in the post-Olympic period. The professionalism of resources, the definition of objectives, management tools and human resources are some of the critical elements for the organisation of a working team that can promote the post-Olympic transformation of host cities. The promotion of an Olympic city and an urban model to pursue can catalyse supra-local transformations that support the intangible knowledge of citizenship. The social transformations through the promotion of the city and its image can become a “Know-How” of the organising committee which, in the post-Olympic phase, will support the future strategies of the city regarding the organisation and planning of the mega-event. These elements allow us to advance a new hypothesis on the development of new modernity induced by sports and mega-events.
... The Polyclinic, a clinic for all Olympic and Paralympic athletes and team officials located in the athlete's village, was first built in Los Angeles in 1932, and since then, the Polyclinic has provided medical services at all Olympic and Paralympics Games. 1 In the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Polyclinic was open from July 13 to August 11 from 7 AM to 11 PM. The village Polyclinic is a health care center staffed and equipped to provide a multidisciplinary service to residents of the village including not only athletes but also team officials. ...
Objective
To evaluate the characteristics of patients who visited the Polyclinic during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and analyze geographical and economic correlations with the number of clinic visits.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Polyclinic during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Participants
Patients who visited the Polyclinic.
Intervention
Data from the electronic medical record system of the Polyclinic were extracted.
Main Outcome Measures
The number of visits for each athlete or team official was calculated by country. Relationship between number of visits per patient and total number of team members, total health expenditure per capita, density of medical doctors, life expectancy at birth, and education expenditure per gross domestic product (GDP) were investigated. Independent variables related to medal tables were also investigated.
Results
The average number of visits per athlete was 0.67, and it was higher in athletes from non–high-income countries compared with high-income countries for both male and female athletes. Number of visits per athlete was higher in countries with low life expectancy at birth (95% CI, −0.16 to −0.02, P = 0.012) and education expenditure per GDP (95% CI, −0.17 to −0.04, P = 0.003).
Conclusions
During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the number of visits to the Polyclinic per athlete was higher in countries with low life expectancy at birth and education expenditure per GDP.
... This indicates a potential to analytic generalisation, which aims to expand and generalise the application of theories in different contexts (Denscombe 2014;Yin 2013). Findings from the case should be transferable to other Olympic cases, considering that host cities share multiple features among them (Muñoz 2006;Gold and Gold 2016). ...
The purpose of this study was to analyse the impacts of the urban regeneration on small businesses in preparation to host the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the reactions of owners of such businesses toward the changes. This research focused on the effects of urban regeneration on small business located in the Olympic Green cluster of Beijing 2022, which has been the one with major changes. Owners of small businesses were interviewed two years before the Games. Whilst owners revealed that they have not taken part in the process of planning the urban regeneration, they have been willing to sacrifice their profits as a sign of patriotism. Meanwhile, they expressed their frustration
with their no-right-to-the-city. The study applies the right-to-the-city theoretical framework to sport mega-event-led urban regeneration. The application of the theoretical framework transcends the case of Beijing 2022.
... The Olympic Games just before and after the Great War Stockholm, 1912;Antwerp, 1920;Paris, 1924;and Amsterdam, 1928) were characterized by answering the accommodation problem with an "emergency residential menu" (Muñoz, 1997), comprising all manner of temporary dwellingseven the ships that had transported the athletesin order to satisfy the accommodation needs that the Games involved. 10 At the Olympic Games of London (1908), the majority of the participating teams couldn"t and didn"t stay for the whole duration of the Games 11 . The British Army set up camps to accommodate athletes during the Antwerp Olympic Games (1920), while the Red Cross provided bedding and cooking utilities 12 . ...
... Humphry 2020). Historiographic studies have suggested different eras in the relation between the Games and urbanization processes following the evolution of the event turned into a megaevent (Muñoz 1997(Muñoz , 2006Chalkley and Essex 1999;Liao and Pitts 2006). By analysing the different designs for all summer OV, we investigate the heterotopian character of these unique spaces, in view of the disparity between practice and theoretical and methodological advances. ...
As a showcase for ideal urban visions, Olympic Villages encompass the utopian disposition of the Olympic Games. More precisely, Olympic Villages could be understood as a heterotopia, a theorization that stems from an analysis of their historical, conceptual, and spatial evolution over the course of the Summer Olympic Games. Against this backdrop, we analysed some notable examples of Olympic Villages as we questioned the relationship between their proposed “legacies” and their subsequent integration in the urban realities of their host cities. We conclude that most Olympic Villages have not fulfiled their legacy role as proposed by the IOC. This suggests that we need to further explore the relationship between the host region’s urban development and the Olympic Games so that the desired “Olympic legacy” may become part of the daily life of the host cities.
... About the London Olympic Village, see Muñoz (2006). ...
Although the landscape of Lomas is part of a green chain from the north of Peru to the north of Chile, over time, this landscape has been losing territory turning into small islands that extends for more than 3,500 km, because of natural factors and urban development issues. Lomas are seasonal ecosystems that represent a great opportunity for Lima to adapt to climate change, as well as protection of biodiversity. However, due to rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in Lima reaching a population of more than 10 million inhabitants, they are threatened by land traffic and inappropriate use. After the establishment of National and Metropolitan Environmental tools since 2012, the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima (MML) has started the experience of climate-oriented policies to support the transition from mitigation to adaptation in local planning including the Lomas ecosystems protection. In late 2019, the System Regional Conservation Area (RCA) Lomas of Lima, a proposal developed by the MML with the technical support of national and international organizations, has been approved by the national government. In an attempt to reflect climate risk management and adaptation, the research focuses on the integration of EbA in Lomas Ecosystems into urban policies for climate change adaptation. This by linking adaptation in EbA quality standards and identifying drivers of vulnerability to increase resilience in the Metropolitan Area of Lima. The research concludes that although it is a breakthrough for the city with some gaps to be clarified due to very weak quality standards at the initial planning phase, Lomas Ecosystems within its environmental, social, and economical components should take place inside the landscape approach. Lomas Ecosystems are a potential network of open spaces that can become the transition between the city and nature to strengthen climate change adaptation as well as create environmental awareness and culture in Lima.
... Pour vérifier les effets de cette évolution, il faut revenir sur les conditions de son organisation. Pour les organisateurs, cette relation à l'espace autorise un renvoi à la qualité des aménagements comme facteur de développement local (Munoz, 2006). ...
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to understand the contents of collective tensions between the organizers
of sports events and issues of territorial development. The slalom competition, appeared at the
Olympics in 1972 and then reintroduced in 1992, is marked by the development of artificial sites.
These constructions are based on massive investment through the hosting of the Olympics. These
projects are part of the organization of the event to create a site for the olympic canoeing slalom.
This is to analyze the evolution of whitewater stadiums, veritable areas dedicated to the show. This
study, based on archival materials and interviews with the organizers of the Olympics, provides
details on the nature of projects and the main springs of the development of competition venues.
Hosting these events participate in the spatial strategy of the host cities. Their legacy would be in a
sustainable development approach.
... Chalkley and Essex, 1999), a diachronic approach for modeling the development of sports facilities (e.g. Pitts and Liao, 2006) or the Olympic Village (Muñoz, 2006), a contemporary approach for remedying to the gigantism "syndrome" of the SOG (e.g. Muller and Stewart, 2016) and a prospective approach for ensuring that bids for the 2028 SOG conform to the principles of IOC Olympic legacy planning (Hartigan, 2012 with the example of Brisbane) or local authorities (Hartmann and Zandberg, 2015 with the example of Amsterdam). ...
... Pour vérifier les effets de cette évolution, il faut revenir sur les conditions de son organisation. Pour les organisateurs, cette relation à l'espace autorise un renvoi à la qualité des aménagements comme facteur de développement local (Munoz, 2006). ...
The purpose of this paper is to understand the contents of collective tensions between the organizers of sports events and issues of territorial development. The slalom competition, appeared at the Olympics in 1972 and then reintroduced in 1992, is marked by the development of artificial sites. These constructions are based on massive investment through the hosting of the Olympics. These projects are part of the organization of the event to create a site for the olympic canoeing slalom. This is to analyze the evolution of whitewater stadiums, veritable areas dedicated to the show. This
study, based on archival materials and interviews with the organizers of the Olympics, provides details on the nature of projects and the main springs of the development of competition venues. Hosting these events participate in the spatial strategy of the host cities. Their legacy would be in a sustainable development approach.
... Being a host of an Olympic Games, challenges for creating the image of world-class athlete village require thoughtful and human friendly environments. Muñoz (2006) stated that "architecture most clearly places itself in the service of creating the image that the host city aims to project internationally, building typologies, formal languages specifically conceived to highlight given values of modernity and specific values of the place" (p.175). According to Tang (2008) interviewed Ping-Pong champion, Deng Yaping, the winner of four Olympic gold medals in table tennis. ...
The study investigated experiences of archery national champions regarding their use of English language at the international athlete village. The slowly growing recognition of the issue in the language barrier was discovered. Three female elite archery athletes were selected that met the criteria for national champion status was based upon previous experiences of competing in the international games. The use of semi-structure interview technique was implemented to be the main method of gathering research data. The study identified several language barriers to communication difficulties. The findings indicated language barriers become issues and had debilitating effect in communication through English language.
... Using the influx of income generated from winning the bid to 128 become host city as a means to regenerate urban areas allows change to occur at a much faster rate than 129 would normally be achievable (Horne, 2011), but the event-led approach to urban policy does not fit 130 neatly into any of the accepted style or models of town planning or trend planning, as it is not led by Games, (Pound, 2002), but despite concerns over its sustainability, the significance of the Olympics on 142 the world stage is such that its abandonment is culturally and financially inconceivable to many athletes, 143 spectators and the media. Moderation to the structure and organisation of the Olympics would intrinsically detract from its original purpose, and regardless of any modification, the Games will remain a high-profile 145 event (Liao & Pitts, 2008), with significant opportunity for the host cities to enhance their infrastructure 146 and initiate environmental revitalization (Liao & Pitts, 2009 (Munoz, 2006). As the Games moved into twenty-first Century, and issues of sustainability began to arise, ...
Purpose
The Olympic Games is the largest sporting mega event of its type, with deep cultural and historical roots. The event is short lived compared to the lifespan of the infrastructure required in host cities. The purpose of this paper is to examine models of adaptability in Olympic construction, using case studies in previous Olympic host cities of the Summer Olympic Games (Rome 1960, London 2012), to assess the impact of adaptability on future legacy.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methods approach (archival research, direct observation), was used in two case studies: Rome (Palazzetto dello Sport, Palazzo dello Sport), and London (London Olympic Velodrome, London Aquatics Centre). The case studies examined how adaptability was used in design to secure legacy.
Findings
In the selected case studies (Rome 1960, London 2012), adaptability has had a positive impact on the post-Games use of venues, all four of which remain in use today. However, there are multiple factors that contribute to post-Games legacy, and further research is necessary.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst some positive results were observed in this study, more research is necessary across a broader spectrum of sites and venues to make conclusive recommendations for architects designing for Mega Sporting events.
Social implications
The significance of this study to architectural practice, academia, and society is its potential to benefit future Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee policy, and be extended to other Mega Sporting events.
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies within its analysis of Olympic infrastructures and sustainability, of which there is a current lack of comparative studies in academic research.
... Secondly, as a second exogenous pulling factor, in general the larger the hosting city, the harder it is to manage the mobility of thousands of visitors in addition to normal city traffic (Gold & Gold, 2015;Muñoz, 2006). Therefore, the hypothetical relationship is proposed as follows: ...
Transportation is one of the main topics in the wide-ranging theme of event sustainability. The aim of this article is to make a contribution towards the evaluation of the sustainable transportation policies implemented by the organizers of hallmark events, to establish an accurate and objective methodology for a cross-comparison. The organizers, policy makers and the host community are the main stakeholders interested in an evaluation of the degree of sustainability implicit in the mobility policy of an event. A non-hierarchical model-based clustering is performed, using a sample of periodical Italian hallmark events, and then examined to determine whether there is a difference in the distribution of a selection of auxiliary variables among the clusters. The results show that neither visitor number, nor the number of inhabitants in the host city, is associated with the cluster membership. However, the theme of the event appears to be associated with the estimated partition.
... Many scholars 1-3 define the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome as the first example of a sport event used intentionally for urban redevelopment purposes, while the Olympic Village built for the 1972 Olympics in Munich is considered an early case of an event-led sports city, because the village was concentrated in one main area (the Olympic Park), instead of being spread around the city, and because it was designed specifically for delivering urban leisure. 2,3 Both Rome and Munich opened the way, and nowadays cities are increasingly competing and bidding to secure the hosting of mega-events, attracted by the potential urban regeneration effect led by those events. But results are not encouraging, and the literature shows how difficult it is to transform event sites into well-integrated areas inside cities. ...
The rapid diffusion of themed-sport areas as legacies of mega-sporting events is a phenomenon gaining growing attention worldwide. An example of this is offered by the city of Doha. On the occasion of the 2006 Asian Games, the capital of Qatar faced some important urban transformations. The main legacy left after staging the event is the implementation of the Aspire Zone, Doha’s Sports City. Is this legacy beneficial in the long-term? What value is added to the city and its inhabitants? Moreover, what is the role of sports events in urban regeneration and their link with urban renewal processes? This study attempts to provide insight into the potential offered by themed-sport areas as legacies of mega-events. It aims to evaluate the rationale for the realisation of sports-dedicated zones, analysing their impact from a physical and social perspective. Specifically, the research offers an investigation into the long-term effect of the Aspire Zone, Doha Sports City, by conducting a post-occupancy evaluation. Conclusions show that there is potential to realise sports-oriented areas that are fully integrated into cities, but the design of a comprehensive and long-term plan is needed. Moreover, providing a sports city with a variety of different activities and functions will contribute to attracting different types of users and will avoid occasional use.
... Essex and Chalkey 1998;Preuss 2000;Varela 2002;Smith 2012), or analysed the transformation of the Winter Olympics and their infrastructural implications (Essex and Chalkey 2004). Other studies have focused on a classification of the Olympic Villages (Muñoz 1997(Muñoz , 2006, or on the evolution of the concept of legacy in the Games (Leopkey 2013), while only in recent years there are attempts to categorize International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cups' venues (Street, Frawley, and Cobourn 2014). In all these studies, it is useful to note certain common traits. ...
The study investigates the legacies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and, in particular, it focuses on the evaluation of the new public open spaces created after their stage and their sustainability outcomes. Indeed, Sochi was the second city, after London 2012, with a chapter dedicated to legacy in its candidature file. The study develops a post-occupancy evaluation of the Adler Olympic Park, the coastal cluster, and one of the main legacies of the Games. Findings highlight that the Games failed in the achievement of almost all the legacy promises made in the bid book.
... The heterotopian mega-event concept proposed here reaches far beyond the notion of Olympic urbanism (Munoz, 2006;Viehoff, Poynter, & Carmona, 2015). The concept of the mega-event heterotopia distinguishes itself from Olympic urbanism as follows: rather than being an ex-ante study of actual impacts, the mega-event heterotopia is deductible as idealistic or worsts from diverse stakeholders through pre-event conceptions, broader scale, and its co-influence, co-dependence, and coexistence of legacies. ...
Mega-events like the Olympic Games are powerful forces that shape cities. In the wake of mega-events, a variety of positive and negative legacies have remained in host cities. In order to bring some theoretical clarity to debates about legacy creation, I introduce the concepts of the mega-event utopia, dystopia and heterotopia. A mega-event utopia is ideal and imaginary urbanism embracing abstract concepts about economies, socio-political systems, spaces, and societies in the host during events. The mega-event utopia (in contrast to other utopian visions other stakeholders may hold) is dictated by the desires of the mega-event owners irrespective of the realities in the event host. In short, a mega-event utopia is the perfect event host from the owner’s perspective. Mega-event utopias are suggested as a theoretical model for the systematic transformation of their host cities. As large-scale events progress as ever more powerful transformers into this century, mega-event dystopias have emerged as negatives of these idealistic utopias. As hybrid post-event landscapes, mega-event heterotopias manifest the temporary mega-event utopia as legacy imprints into the long-term realities in hosting cities. Using the Olympic utopia as an example of a mega-event utopia, I theorize utopian visions around four urban traits: economy, image, infrastructure and society. Through the concept of the mega-event legacy utopia, I also provide some insight toward the operationalization of the four urban traits for a city’s economic development, local place marketing, urban development, and public participation.
... Mega-events can be considered an integral component of much 20th century urban development (Muñoz, 2006), with urban transformation and 'legacy benefits' used to justify the expenditure (Essex and Chalkley, 1998;Leopkey and Parent, 2011;Pound, 2003;Smith, 2012). In many ways, the essence of a mega-event is scale. ...
A focus on the ‘mega’ aspect of hallmark events can divert attention from the micro – those local communities who are most impacted by the event. Similarly, attention to the ‘event’ aspect underplays the long process of bidding and preparation before any putative legacy of urban transformation for local people. This paper uses qualitative data to unpack the complex and multi-layered views of local residents, living in a deprived neighbourhood beside the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games site in Scotland. They reflect on five years of intensive urban regeneration, evaluate the experience of ‘lockdown’ at Games time, and consider their hopes and fears for the future of the community. Interviewing a mixture of lifelong, established, new and returning residents, we found considerable common ground across the different groups in terms of hopes for a new, mixed community in the area. However, findings also highlight concerns around urban governance practices and the limitations of a market-led approach to regeneration.
... Mega-events can be considered an integral component of much 20th century urban development (Muñoz, 2006), with urban transformation and 'legacy benefits' used to justify the expenditure (Essex and Chalkley, 1998;Leopkey and Parent, 2011;Pound, 2003;Smith, 2012). In many ways, the essence of a mega-event is scale. ...
Host cities have increasingly sought to combine the staging of a multi-sports event with the regeneration of run-down areas. Like London 2012, Glasgow has sought to use the Commonwealth Games 2014 as a catalyst for the physical, social and economic renewal of its East End. This paper presents a novel approach to the assessment of legacy for a host community which recognises the complexity of potential impacts, without assuming a trickle-down effect to the local area. This comprises a holistic approach to evaluation, encompassing consideration of plausibility, the specifics of people and place, and legacy programmes. Three requirements for sustained economic legacy impacts for the host community are identified: continued and extended partnership working at a strategic level; extending the scope and duration of legacy programmes beyond that required for the event itself; resolving inherent tensions between delivering legacy at different spatial scales, and ensuring the equitable treatment of disadvantaged areas.
... The tangible legacy consists of the economic impact, the investments in infrastructural improvements and event facilities, the effects in terms of tourist flows and the construction of significant public works (Hiller, 2006(Hiller, , 2007Muñoz, 2006). ...
Hosting, or organising, a mega-event is a form of destination branding; it is a way to generate the leveraging process of the event itself and promote the image of a location. Besides, these events allow a destination to attract the attention of the public and the media, enhancing its awareness nationally and internationally. Mega-events promote greater flows of tourists and visitors, especially in the short term. Nevertheless they produce long-lasting effects, such as the attraction and stimulation of investments, urban regeneration, advanced facilities and equipment, in addition to the improvement of accommodation, services and infrastructures. Thanks to those investments and to the growth in tourist arrivals, the mega-events could have a positive impact on the local economy, also over years, but some of their most important outcomes deal with the so-called intangible legacy, or rather social, cultural and political effects, more difficult to identify and measure. They can modify local identity and image, supporting the repositioning of the hosting place at an international level. The above considerations are discussed in this study; most attention is paid to three Italian cities, involved in top events: Genoa, appointed as European Capital of Culture in 2004; Turin, that hosted the XX Olympic Winter Games in 2006; Milan, that is now organising the Universal Expo 2015.
Article available on line: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/nq8aM2fGPTzagZm2Ni8g/full
... Mega-events can be considered an integral component of much 20th century urban development (Muñoz, 2006), with urban transformation and 'legacy benefits' used to justify the expenditure (Essex and Chalkley, 1998;Leopkey and Parent, 2011;Pound, 2003;Smith, 2012). In many ways, the essence of a mega-event is scale. ...
A focus on the 'mega' aspect of hallmark events can divert attention from the micro – those local communities who are most impacted by the event. Similarly, attention to the 'event' aspect underplays the long process of bidding and preparation before any putative legacy of urban transformation for local people. This paper uses qualitative data to unpack the complex and multi-layered views of local residents, living in a deprived neighbourhood beside the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games site in Scotland. They reflect on five years of intensive urban regeneration, evaluate the experience of 'lockdown' at Games time, and consider their hopes and fears for the future of the community. Interviewing a mixture of lifelong, established, new and returning residents, we found considerable common ground across the different groups in terms of hopes for a new, mixed community in the area. However, findings also highlight concerns around urban governance practices and the limitations of a market-led approach to regeneration.
... The term 'Polish effect' refers obviously to the 'Barcelona effect': TheOlympics in Barcelona in 1992 were considered the exemplary success story of a mega-sport event. However, benefits of mega-sport events (including the Olympics in Barcelona) are questionable (e.g.,Munoz, 2006). visit Wroclaw in the future. ...
Our case study aimed to analyse the social construction of the impact of the 2012 European Football Championship on the Polish city of Wroclaw. To realise this aim, we conducted an analysis of 35 semi-structured interviews with select residents of Wroclaw; we also analysed the local press. Before presenting our findings, we briefly discuss the organisation of Euro 2012 and official discourse on this event in Poland to introduce a broader context. Referring to the Stuart Hall model of encoding/decoding, we argue that informants constructed the meaning of Euro 2012 in a negotiated manner. For example, they seemed to accept the thesis that Euro 2012 helped to modernise Wroclaw. However, they were suspicious of how and why modernisation projects were realised. Many argued that it was only because of external pressure that officials were able to act efficiently and honestly. It seems as though the respondents had rather low opinions of the competence of local authorities and did not trust in their ability to govern the city rationally and honesty. This observation is in accordance with a macro-social analysis of post-communist societies that speaks about a ‘culture of distrust’ or a ‘culture of cynicism’. We demonstrate that, in contrast to official discourse, residents of the city did not see any far-reaching and revolutionary social changes in Wroclaw.
... Subsequent data analysis (VanWynsberghe et al. 2012) invoked sport management's burgeoning concept of leveraging to provide a more powerful tool for explaining host context as an intervening factor in the Games' impacts. It should be explained that the bundling approach also has its basis in arguments presented in the mega-event literature that longer-term impacts of mega-events will only occur if there is a relevant, long-term, well-planned and effectively managed effort to produce impacts (Kirkup and Major 2006, Liao and Pitts 2006, Muñoz 2006. Together, bundling and leveraging argue that change can be more expected to happen when there is a driving force intended to produce change rather than in the absence of such a force. ...
This paper aims to contribute to a burgeoning dialogue on evaluating the sustainability of sport mega-events by introducing three strategies for implementing the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) Olympic Games Impact (OGI) study. The three techniques are bundling/leveraging, before–after control and sustainability scorecards. This paper begins by offering a twofold definition of OGI, one based on the OGI Technical Manual and one based on the author’s experience undertaking this initiative. Second, it presents and discusses the OGI critiques that exist in the sport mega-event impact literature. Although only recently implemented, critical analyses of the OGI methodology have already produced a handful of critiques. Third, the experience of applying OGI in an examination of the 2010 Games is the grounds for suggesting two new critiques. Fourth, the paper describes, using empirical data from 2010, how the OGI researchers have addressed the methodological critiques by: (1) connecting indicator data to public policy objectives; (2) positing a provisional means to create a sustainability standard; and (3) comparing changes in the indicator data in the host to non-host jurisdictions. This article would be of interest to future prospective Olympic host cities, researchers of mega-events and their impacts and practitioners who evaluate urban sustainability.
The editions of the Olympic Games have created a major urban transformation, allowing for a new critical perspective on the latest urban dimension of the Games; in particular, the winter edition underwent profound transformations in spatial patterns. The study analyses the different spatial models of the Winter Olympic Games that have developed up to the present day. Focusing on the relationship between the Olympic Village and the urban fabric will provide valuable tools for evaluating the Olympic event on the subject territory. These spatial models show the importance of the spatial impact of the Olympic Village on the city, allowing us to consider Olympic urbanism as an asset that cannot be destroyed in the post-Olympic phase. Since the first Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix in 1924, the event has been organised in mountain resorts with ski resorts, sports halls and accommodation facilities. We will observe how the winter edition since Oslo 1952 has complexified into a broader spatial model. Therefore, we will analyse how creating new structures will always entail territorial changes and new impacts on the internal connections of the city and the territory. The research proposes an innovative analysis of Olympic urbanism in general and of Olympic villages in particular, which consolidates the field of study that Olympic urbanism represents and offers a valuable document for the future construction of new Olympic villages in the coming decades. In addition, the study aims to reflect on the specific case of Turin in 2006 to observe how the regional model has become the model favoured by future candidate cities. Through the analysis, we will observe how the winter edition has become a model permanently embedded in the regional strategies of host cities. We will see how the Olympic event can be crucial for planning regional infrastructure, transport systems, services and housing in regional areas.
Recent opposition to Olympic bids in American cities underscores some residents’ disapproval of their cities hosting mega-events. In this study, I test whether partisanship plays a role in residents’ support for a local Olympics bid using survey data from Houston, Texas in 2001 and Colorado statewide surveys from 2022 and 2023. I find that Republicans and conservatives were indeed less supportive of using public funds for the Houston 2012 bid. However, the Colorado 2022 survey indicates Republicans were more supportive of Denver entering a host bid. To test whether explicitly priming residents to consider public spending activates partisanship, respondents of the 2023 Colorado survey received one of two versions of the Olympics bid question, the second of which explicitly mentions spending public funds to win a bid. Results demonstrate that interacting partisanship with the public spending treatment indeed leads to less support for such projects, particularly among Republicans and independents.
The editions of the Olympic Games created a major urban transformation, which allows for a new critical perspective on the new urban dimension of the Games, especially in the construction of the three main physical elements built: the athletics stadium, the swimming pool facilities and, above all, the "Olympic Village".
The study analyses the Winter and Summer Olympic Villages in a general way with a special focus on the relationship between the Olympic Village and the urban fabric. I will examine the Olympic Villages based on the quantitative treatment of statistical data referring to a series of criteria or parameters useful to characterise each specific experience. My research aims to demonstrate how socio-urban implications, impact, legacy and sustainability are key aspects to consider when planning and evaluating the Olympic Games.
The analysis identifies the different subsequent uses of the Olympic Villages after the end of the Games. The project involves a multi- and interdisciplinary methodology that, through a critical analysis approach, aims to develop an innovative analysis of Olympic urbanism in general and Olympic Villages in particular. Establishing and consolidating the field of study that represents Olympic urbanism as a useful tool for the future construction of new Olympic Villages in the coming decades. This research shows how cities must consider the intangible heritage that Olympic Villages represent, as part of the legacy of transforming host cities. It is only through these new philosophies that cities and regions could benefit from the intangible benefits associated with the Olympic Games, such as employment, infrastructure structure and use, tourism, job offers, SMEs, cultural development, decision-making and trade.
The 'Tweeting the Olympics' project (the subject of this special section of Participations) must be understood in the context of efforts by host states, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other actors involved in the Games to cultivate and communicate a set of meanings to audiences about both the Olympics events and the nations taking part. Olympic Games are not only sporting competitions; they are also exercises in the management of relations between states and publics, at home and overseas, in order to augment the attractiveness and influence or the soft power of the states involved. Soft power is most successful when it goes unnoticed according to its chief proponent Joseph Nye. If so, how can we possibly know whether soft power works? This article reviews the state of the field in thinking about public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and soft power in the period of this project (2012-14), focusing particularly on how the audiences of soft power projects, like the London and Sochi Games, were conceived and addressed. One of the key questions this project addresses is whether international broadcasters such as the BBCWS and RT used social media during the Games to promote a cosmopolitan dialogue with global audiences and/or merely to integrate social media so as to project and shape national soft power. We argue first that the contested nature of the Olympic Games calls Volume 12, Issue 1 May 2015 Page 414 into question received theories of soft power, public and cultural diplomacy. Second, strategic national narratives during the Olympics faced additional challenges, particularly due to the tensions between the national and the international character of the Games. Third, the new media ecology and shift to a network paradigm further threatens the asymmetric power relations of the broadcasting paradigm forcing broadcasters to reassess their engagement with what was formerly known as 'the audience' and the targets of soft power.
The objective of this article is to evaluate the social and cultural significance of the ‘Supporters United’ programme, an unprecedented initiative combining fan culture, institutional actors and local authorities. The idea of this initiative was born during the preparation for Euro 2012 – first Mega Sport Event which Poland had organized since the system transformation in 1989. The organization of the European Championship was a milestone in the implementation of fan projects in Poland. The article discusses various activities undertaken by supporter centers, which provide evidence of the ‘civilizing’ evolution of fan culture. Importantly, such terms as ‘civilizational leap’ dominated Polish public discourse in the context of Euro 2012. Although the event generated infrastructural rather than social changes in Poland, the implementation of ‘Supporters United’ is its important legacy. This article also considers future possibilities for the development of fan initiatives in Poland.
Cities are increasingly central to sustainability discourse, as urban lifestyles and infrastructure are framed as solutions to global environmental problems such as climate change. This framing relies on geographically referenced visualisations such as architectural renderings, maps, and geospatial models, which portray environmental futures by envisioning the ‘sustainable city’. By showing what sustainability might look like in a future city, these geovisualisations strategically link urban planning interventions to global environmental policy debates. This process is explored through a case study of sustainability design proposed in Olympic cities. Aspiring Olympic hosts regularly adopt sustainability narratives of global–urban sustainability. In an effort to cast their events as ‘the most sustainable Games ever’, city leaders experiment with urban design (e.g. temporary stadiums, zero-carbon building design, or large-scale environmental restoration projects) and link them to global environmental debates. Visual analysis techniques are used to code architectural and geospatial images in 61 Olympic planning proposals, and to evaluate the use of visualisation practices in urban politics. While these designs are quite speculative, the visual artefacts produced through the planning process can be used as political tools for catalysing investment and projecting policy leadership.
Although mega-events almost represent an ordinary tool of urban policy, they are often regarded as exceptional situations. Through an analysis of planning processes carried out in London and Milan, this paper provides a problematization of such an exceptional dimension and argues the need to consider mega-events as cases of «exceptional routines». This notion is used as a key to interpret the governance architectures adopted by the two cities, and their effects on urban policy-making.
The establishing of Villages to accommodate athletes and officials at Olympic Games, in the winter and in the summer, can change the respective host cities forever and hopefully for the good. This impact was felt less for the early Modern Olympic Games, however, due to the increasing commercialisation and ‘gigantism’ of the Olympics in the 21st century (Preuss, 2005:32) this change has become more pronounced. Within this process of transformation, the concept of the Olympic Village has increasingly had a positive role to play as a possible mini-image of the host city (Muñoz, 2006). Take for example the City of Vancouver, host city of the Olympic Winter Games in 2010. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) had to follow explicit guidelines from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), outlining the close proximity between the Olympic Village and the competition venues. This enabled the responsible people of the City of Vancouver, an important stakeholder within VANOC, to speed up an already existing plan for the redevelopment of the Southeast False Creek (SEFC) district and to effect the changes in a timely manner to create a ‘sustainable urban neighbourhood’ (IOC, 2011:4), all in the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis. In the City of Vancouver, the Olympic Village has ever since been geographically and symbolically considered to be the trigger for further wide-reaching and accelerated urban development. This fascinating change of an outdated district into an own-little-village within the city, with its heritage of being an Olympic Village, has caused the authors to investigate the history of the Winter Olympic Villages.
This paper examines the temporality of urban planning in contemporary London, especially with regard to the 2012 Olympic Games. I argue that planners and officials deployed a rhetoric of permanence to validate not only the Games themselves, but also the costly development and infrastructural changes in the city as well as human displacements. Specifically, a decentralized network of planners, officials, consultants, and administrators used temporal concepts such as ‘legacy’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘regeneration’ in describing the benefits of hosting the Games, all of which purposely ignored the temporary and unsustainable nature of the two-week sporting event. I further argue that this rhetoric could be sustained only through an implication that the Olympic site—and East London as a whole—was in a state of ruin, a state which could be ameliorated through the production of this sporting ‘mega-event’. Above all, the Olympics attempt to rhetorically mitigate their own temporary, ‘pop-up’ quality for the sake of an urban settler colonialism.
Mega-events are often considered to be catalysts of urban transformation. They are perceived as a great opportunity to advertise the host cities globally. Therefore, focusing on the Barcelona model, the strategic urban planning and urban regeneration built upon the 1992 Olympic Games have become a model for several stakeholders. This paper intends to critically examine the strategies and implications of the Barcelona model, urban development, and renewal schemes in the Catalan capital. More specifically, it aims to provide a critical geographic analysis of the impacts of such schemes on the residents. Furthermore, it could give us clues about the extent to which the urban renewal changes taken place in Barcelona affected the core of what constitutes public governance practices and urban entrepreneurialism. Key words: Barcelona model, mega-events and evictions, urban marketing, strategic urban planning.
Artykuł podejmuje problematykę wielkich imprez sportowych (ang.
Sport Mega Events,
dalej: WIS) będących najbardziej spektakularnymi przejawami komercjalizacji i neoliberalizacji współczesne-go zglobalizowanego sportu. Analiza obejmuje dwa przypadki procesów politycznych, w które zaangażowane były polskie elity polityczne: organizację w 2012 roku Mistrzostw Europy w Pił-ce Nożnej (dalej: Euro 2012) oraz inicjatywę na rzecz organizacji Zimowych Igrzysk Olimpijskich w 2022 roku w Krakowie, zablokowaną przez referendalny sprzeciw mieszkańców tego miasta. Rozważane są skutki organizacji Euro 2012 i konteksty politycznego konsensusu wszystkich sił politycznych na rzecz organizacji obu imprez oraz okoliczności, które doprowadziły do fiaska ini-cjatywy Kraków 2022
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