Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers, 14-18th
April 2010, Washington DC.
Call for Papers: Olympic Cities, 1896-2016: Experience ad Challenges
Session organisers: John R. Gold, Oxford Brookes University
([log in to unmask]) and Margaret M. Gold, London Metropolitan
University ([log in to unmask])
The last 150 years have seen exponential growth of large-scale, prolonged
and spectacular celebrations of human achievements in the arts, sport and
science, but few events ever rival the prestige or coverage regularly
enjoyed by the Summer Olympic Games and, increasingly, by their Winter
counterparts. Since their revival in 1896, the Olympics have
progressively developed into the world’s most significant international
festival. They provide a platform for host nations to project themselves
to the world, with their impact made more memorable by the powerful
spectacle integral to the event. They are particularly important for what
they offer their host cities. For the early events planning an Olympic
Games often meant little more than providing a stadium, which might even
be temporary, but from 1960 onwards, cities began to integrate Olympic
festivals into systematic exercises in general urban development, with
commitment of large amounts of public and private investment over an
extended period. As such, they offer opportunities for the host city to
address ambitious agendas that simultaneously can include kick-starting
sluggish economies, knocking years off the normal development cycle for
infrastructural improvement or urban regeneration, repositioning a city in
the global tourist market, creating vibrant cultural quarters, and
generally stealing a march on rivals. Conventional wisdom sees staging
the Summer Olympics in particular as the greatest prize on offer in the
competition between cities for status and prestige on the world stage.
Yet history shows that the prevailing view of the Olympics as an unalloyed
bonanza is both a recent perspective and one that is frequently
out-of-line with past experience.
This proposed session seeks papers that wish to offer analyses of the
geographies of Olympic Cities from the re-creation of the Games in 1896 to
the conclusion of the candidacy process for the 2016 Summer Games. Papers
could deal with the urban aspects of any of the following areas:
* staging the Summer or Winter Olympics
* the Cultural Olympiads
* the Paralympics
* planning, finance and management
* the Olympics and place promotion
* security
* urban regeneration and renewal
* Olympic tourism
Papers on other related topics are also welcome. Please contact John Gold
([log in to unmask]) or Maggie Gold ([log in to unmask]) if you are
interested in giving a paper, preferably no later than the 30th of
September.
--
Professor John R. Gold,
Field Chair: Geography Department,
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
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web page: http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/staff/prof.asp?ID=16
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