The Olympic cities (2006)

Résumé du document

Last decades have been marked, assuredly, by the growing internationalization of cities and this increased autonomy of local actions, beyond the national scale, is a particularly relevant frame to study the Olympic phenomenon. As a matter of fact, several scales are represented and interacting in the Olympic Games :on the one hand, with athletes competing under different banners, the competition stands out as an example of nationalism' struggle, but for the host city, local dynamics and local development are also at stake. A competition between cities interest in the Games is obvious and the main evidence of that is the fact that every four year, dozens of city councils are bitterly fighting all over the globe to win this jackpot, namely the honor of staging the Olympics.

Extraits

[...] Atlanta's immediate dismantling of its principal temporary structures is a flagrant case of the absence and failure of sustainable strategies Even though environmentalism has become one of the IOC's priorities and a new paradigm , and London officially aspire to hold the “greenest game ever” with energy-saving schemes, the sustainability of urban Olympic projects is remains an extremely burning issue. Once again, it reminds us of the necessity of integrating citizens in democratic decision-making processes, since they are the first affected by the economic, social and environmental negative consequences of the competition. In this line, insiders of Olympic cities increasingly tend to organize themselves into coalitions to combat the preparations of the Games. [...]

[...] And luckily enough, the sociological basis of Olympic travellers is extremely heterogeneous, which confers sportive events their peculiarity compared to the others forms of manifestations Retrospectively, figures demonstrate that the Games incredibly boost tourism: in 1995, one year before the games, the city of Atlanta increased the number of its visitors of roughly which amounts to a total effect of 4,2 billion dollars. And besides, it was one of London city council's main argument to gain public support for 2012. So, undeniably, there's a purposeful short-term growth strategy and an immediate profit expectation for the city. Needless to say, however, that hosting the games is not reducible to this short-lived intensification of activities. [...]

[...] So the benefits for residents are not that simple. Moreover, in order to gain support from inhabitants, public authorities and private corporations generally overuse, as we saw it, the argument of Olympic strong imagery and the “world-class discourse associate the city with this majesty. But actually, things are more complex than that sudden reversal of urban image resulting from the magic of Olympics. The image-making process we described in the first part may be weakened and dependent on many other actors than the city council's determination. [...]

[...] A shining example of that are Salt Lake City's winter games. Very significantly, the bribery phenomenon revealed by the media did not stagger the city as much as it created an astonishing publicity. Visibility is obviously a key factor of this image-building process. One must add to several weeks of TV craze for the city a much more diversified interest from the media, stretching from the bidding process to the closing ceremony: extra-sportive communication. Since LA's astonishing spectacle, the Games are the most efficient publicity to sell the city-product all over the world that is to say to generate TV audiences and attract sponsorship from major international companies. [...]

[...] The Olympic cities (2006) Last decades have been marked, assuredly, by the growing internationalisation of cities and this increased autonomy of local actions, so beyond the national scale, is a particularly relevant frame to study the Olympic phenomenon. As a matter of fact, several scales are represented and interacting in the Olympic Games :on the one hand, with athletes competing under different banners, the competition stands out as an example of nationalisms' struggle, but for the host city, local dynamics and local development are also at stake. [...]