Between Discourse and Reality: The Un-Sustainability of Mega-Event Planning

The zero-sum nature of mega-event hosting encourages cities to escalate investment with an eye towards convincing event rights holders that a positive outcome will result. The discursive frameworks of “legacy” and “sustainability”, the global competition to attract events and the compressed event ho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 5; no. 9; pp. 3926 - 3940
Main Author Gaffney, Christopher
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2013
Subjects
Consumption
Economic development
Environmental protection
Events planning
Globalization
International relations
Olympic games
Public policy
Social justice
Social responsibility
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Transnationalism
Urban planning
Brazil
Rio de Janeiro Brazil
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Summary:The zero-sum nature of mega-event hosting encourages cities to escalate investment with an eye towards convincing event rights holders that a positive outcome will result. The discursive frameworks of “legacy” and “sustainability”, the global competition to attract events and the compressed event horizon make for mega-event preparation regimes that may seriously compromise long-term urban planning agendas in mega-event hosts. By examining the sustainable urban planning literature, the discursive frameworks of sustainability in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the discursive framing of the Rio 2016 bid, this paper will examine the Olympic Golf project being implemented in Rio de Janeiro. Through this case study the paper argues that unless mega-event rights holders change their candidacy and selection processes, these events will inevitably be detrimental to their hosts.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su5093926