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11th Planning History Conference, Barcelona
14-17 July 2004
Symposia on ‘Olympic Cities’
Revived in 1896, the Olympics not only became the premier
international sporting festival in the twentieth century, but
also an event that is greatly prized, and contested, by
potential hosts. The Summer Games, in particular, are now
considered to offer host cities an unrivalled package of
benefits. These include generating direct investment in
facilities and infrastructure, encouraging regeneration
projects, stimulating associated visitor attractions, and acting
to improve the global visibility of the host city and its
region. Yet, in the recent past at least, there was little
competition to stage a sprawling and inherently costly event
that often seemed an open invitation to achieve municipal
bankruptcy and a legacy of expensive and redundant stadia.
Certainly few cities relished staging the arts and cultural
competitions that were an integral part of the original Olympic
vision.
The 11th Planning History Conference in Barcelona will feature
several sessions devoted to exploring the history of staging the
Summer and Winter Olympic Games in all their dimensions. The
organisers particularly invite proposals for papers:
1. providing portraits of the experience of specific host
cities, with particular emphasis on questions of planning from
initial conception, through development of site and facilities
to conversion to post-festival uses
2. dealing with thematic and comparative issues. These might
include
Relations between host cities and the Olympic movement
Planning models and local impact
The historiography of staging the Olympics
Olympic festival planning and political ideology
The use and purpose of spectacle
Designing Olympic stadia, facilities and infrastructure
Olympic rhetoric and the new commercialism
The Olympics and place promotion
Olympics and urban regeneration
Problems of post-festival usage
Staging the associated arts and cultural festivals
Cultural, economic and social meaning of Olympic events
The Olympics and International Exhibitions
Those wishing to present a paper should send an abstract of
around 200 words to either of the session organisers:
Professor John R. Gold
School of Social Sciences and Law,
Oxford Brookes University,
Gipsy Lane,
Headington,
Oxford,
OX3 0BP,
U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)1865 483784
Fax: +44 (0)1865 483937
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Or
Margaret Gold
School of Business and Service Sector Management,
London Metropolitan University,
Stapleton House,
277-281 Holloway Road,
London N7 8HN
Tel: +44 (0)20 7133 3214
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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