Challenging the SD benefits attributed to sport Mega-Events hosting

Sport Mega-event hosting faces opposition that is manifested with different intensity during the different phases of the event, from its inception as an idea to its delivery and legacy. Some Social Movements Organisations (SMOs) have acted as indefatigable monitors of the Sustainable Development (SD) dimension of sporting events in general and, in some of the most recent sport mega-events, in particular the Olympics, they have served as important advisors and facilitators. Nevertheless, in many cases we see enthusiastic supporters turning to vehemently challenging whatever positives have been associated with hosting the event. In addition, there is opposition to sport Mega-events in their entirety. That type of opposition tends to employ a holistic prism that manages to identify multiple interconnected negative aspects of hosting a sport mega-event and incorporate them into an anti-systemic discourse. It is important to bear in mind that irrespective of many proclamations to the opposite as far as megas are concerned (projects and/or events), a number of studies have demonstrated that citizen participation and democratic accountability in decision-making have been notoriously absent. After all, the idea of citizen participation in the planning of sport mega-event is essentially the public response to a plan conceived by others. There were, of course, some notable cases of democratic consultation at the early stages of bidding to host a sport mega-event but these more democratic approaches resulted in the failure of the bid (for e.g. Toronto 1996). The knowledge of this by the groups that initiated the hosting idea and the bidding process has led to discouraging in depth public consultation that may fit perfectly to the democratic process but not to the tight schedules of associated projects completion. That produces ‘autocracy against which opposition may arise’ (Hiller, 2000, p. 198). It is this democratic deficit that has led to important instances of social contestation and protest mobilizations by citizen groups as well as the more regular corps of social activists. From a perspective borrowed from the sociology of protest and social movements, sport mega-events hosting can operate as an issue that stimulates protest activities by an existing protest milieu and new actors as well as an important mobilizing resource. In fact, some scholars have also argued that the Olympic Games were an important frame for the transnational activism that was marked by anti-globalization protest in Seattle in 1999 (Cottrell & Nelson, 201; Lenskyj, 2008). In addition, it’s important not to lose sight of other acts dissent that take place in relatively close proximity, about a year before the event when most infrastructural and societal changes brought by hosting the event and impact start to become apparent by the host communities, like the rioting of August 2011 in the London Olympic Boroughs and the 2012 riots of June 2013 in Sao Paulo and other Brazilian cities. This paper starts by outlining the SD claims made in the bidding to host the summer Olympic Games by five prospective hosts (Sydney; Athens; Beijing; London and Rio) proceeds towards examining the opposition and challenges that was manifested in relation to these claims. In Particular it provides an assessment of protest-events over the aforementioned different phases of sport mega-events hosting. A different picture emerges for each of the host nation that is partly explained by local, national and global configuration of protest politics. Whereas the post-event legacy of the first two hosts of the Games can be assessed and that way see the validity of claims made by challengers in the other phases, in the other three cases, the implementation of Olympic Games Impact (OGI) studies offers the tool for discussing the post-event phase for Beijing and London and engage in a speculative exercise for the case of Rio. Judging by available findings, the paper concludes that the SD aspiration made in the bid documents are unlikely to be met and social contestation based on the same issues is likely to increase due to the current global economic crisis and BRICS, like China and Brazil, having entered the process of becoming global economic hegemons.

CONTEXTUALIZING THE POLITICS OF “BRAZILIAN” SPORT MEGA EVENTS

The first two decades of 21st century were times of great social, economic and political changes in Brazil where sport mega events (FIFA WC 2014, Rio 2016) played a key role in how the nation portrayed and promoted itself in a global scale. Despite the undeniable importance of Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff in attempt to present the country as global protagonist with more political power and social advancements, this works is intended to discuss and extended the discussion upon mega events as different ways of repeating old traditions and practices, (radically) contextualizing the role of other players and agents (sport officials, local politicians, sponsors and local media), their biases and interests, in accordance to traditional colonial processes and the dominant neo-liberal paradigm.

Olympic games, mega-events, and civil societies:globalisation, environment, resistance

This volume explores sports mega-events, their social, political, and cultural characters, the value systems that they inscribe and draw on, the claims they make on us and the claims the organisers make for them, the spatial and ethical relationships they create, and the responses of civil societies to them. Our premise is that sports mega-events are not simply sporting or cultural phenomena. They are also political and economic events, characterised by the generation and projection of symbolic meanings – most obviously over the nature of statehood, economic power, and of collective cultural identity – and by social conflict, especially over land use, and over the extent and contours of public spending commitments. Because of their peculiar spatial and temporal organization, they raise questions about the relationships between global cultural and economic flows and particular local and national spaces. Because of their evolutionary characteristics, they ask us to consider not simply the time of the event but of the effects of the event on the long-term direction, implementation, and consequences of public policy.

Sport Mega-Event Hosting and Environmental Concern: From Sydney to Rio

This paper examines the extent to which the proclamation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Olympic Games hosting can improve the environmental capacity of the host nation holds. It singles out the post-event environmental concern exhibited by the population of the host country as the most important indicator and proceeds towards examining how successive host nations have performed in relation to that. The intervening variable of the global environmental crisis is put under the microscope and as a result the general conclusion suggests that environmental concern is much more tied to the general socio-economic predicament that the host country finds itself to be in the post-event phase than the successful hosting of green Games.

The economic impact of sports mega-events : The case study of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championship Falun 2015

Since the second half of 1990s, the economic impact of sports mega-events concerned the researchers, the public and the professionals. The investment of public funds and the effects on several sectors of the economy motivate the economic impact studies. The economic impact of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championship Falun 2015 to the region of Dalarna is the topic of this thesis. This requires the calculation of direct, indirect and induced economic impact. Within the analysis, data from a questionnaire survey conducted on seven different days during the event are used. The final sample of the analysis contains 893 observations. The segmentation approach was applied for the calculations and the visitors were classified regarding their choice of accommodation. The regional economic impact is calculated at 321 M SEK and the employment effect on the tourism sector is estimated. However, the lack of information limits the study. The analysis could be extended with an accurate investigation of certain issues. Further, the impact of the event should be estimated from all the perspectives. The organization of sports mega-events creates tangible and intangible effects to the host-city. The thesis reviews literature on the economic impact studies of sports mega-events. The results of the study can be used for a comprehensive analysis of the case study. Further, the professionals of the tourism and the event could be benefited.

Voluntariado: legado de megaeventos esportivos

O objetivo do estudo foi compreender quais as estratégias de preparação de voluntários para a atuação em megaeventos esportivos no Brasil. A pesquisa foi de natureza qualitativa e de cunho exploratório, tendo como técnica para a coleta de dados a entrevista com roteiro de perguntas semiestruturado e o caderno de campo. A entrevista foi realizada com o responsável pelo programa de treinamento dos voluntários do V Jogos Mundiais Militares (2011) sobre a organização realizada. A análise do conteúdo (BARDIN, 2011) foi utilizada para análise das experiências relatadas de acordo com 3 categorias: perfil do voluntariado esportivo e do líder de voluntários; dificuldades em se trabalhar, compreender e valorizar o voluntariado no esporte e modelo de treinamento e de gestão do programa de voluntários esportivos. Os resultados desta pesquisa contribuíram para a literatura nesta temática, bem como ponto de partida para o design e coleta de dados de pesquisas sobre voluntários para os próximos megaeventos esportivos que serão sediados no Brasil, Copa do Mundo de 2014 e Jogos Olímpicos de 2016.

Dispossessing bare life: Towards a theoretical framework for examining power relations through economic development at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa

In the past twenty years an increasing number of Global South nations have vied for the rights to host prestigious and expensive sport mega events. This trend requires significant reflection given the enormous economic costs of these events, which often produce little capital gain for the host nation (Whitson & Horne, 2006). Furthermore, sport mega events are often utilized for their symbolic capital (Belanger, 2009), which sometimes manifests through forcing people from their land for the sake of “beautification” (Davis, 2006). In this project, then, I asked how technologies of power were utilized by FIFA, corporate stakeholders, and the South African government to control people who were marginal to, or impeded the success of, the World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa. This project consisted of two parts: the first involved constructing a theoretical framework for better understanding power as it operates through sport mega events in general. To this end I employed Marxian notions of the ordering of physical space, Foucauldian conceptions of sovereignty and governmentality, and Agamben’s (1998) state of exception to determine how particular bodies are constituted and controlled through sport mega events. In the second part, I applied this theoretical framework to the events in South Africa to better elucidate how people became displaced and killed because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I used South African popular news and documentaries as empirical evidence and conducted a discursive analysis of said news media. Through this coverage it became apparent that the mega event created the conditions in which new forms of rogue sovereign partnerships could arise through a historically and spatially contingent process of capitalism. The rogue sovereigns’ para-juridico-political orders, the discourses and practices of accumulation by dispossession as a tactic and effect of govermentality, and other historical non-capital subjectivities such as racial identity, all contributed to constituting Agamben’s state of exception in which people could be displaced, killed or left to die in the events surrounding the World Cup.

Perception of the sport events held in a permanent facility: the case of the Madrid Sports Palace

The aims of this study were to analyse perceptions regarding the sporting events held in the Madrid Sports Palace and to analyse whether those perceptions vary by age or gender. One hundred and ninetyfive residents answered the Ntloko and Swart (2008) questionnaire. The dimensions most highly rated were economic benefits (3.9±0.8), the event as a regional showcase (3.6±0.7), and the event as entertainment (3.4±0.6). However, the respondents did not agree with the negative environmental impact (2.0±0.8). Men rated the use of public money (z=2.4; pmenor que.05) and the regional showcase (z=2.0 pmenor que.05) more positively than women. Finally, women rated the increase in prices (z=2.0; pmenor que.05) more highly than men. The age groups differed significantly only regarding the promotion of community pride. Seniors and middle-aged adults rated it more positively than young adults (?2(2)=9.9; pmenor que.01). The fact that in an urban sports facility regular sporting events take place on a regular basis means that there are diverse perceptions, though mainly positive, and those perceptions differ from the perceptions about mega events that take place once in a life time at temporary sports facilities.