Olympic Exclusions: Youth, Poverty, and Social Legacies
Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly (Carleton University, Canada)

A joint seminar between the UCLan Criminal Justice Partnership and the International Research Institute for Sport Studies (IRiSS); part of the UCLan Distinguished Visitor Programme 2016-2017

Wednesday 22nd March 2:00 – 3:30 pm 
Media Innovation Studio, Media Factory, UCLan

This is a free event and open to all.

Abstract:
In my book Olympic Exclusions: Youth, Poverty, and Social Legacies, I argue that the Olympics, and host cities bidding for them, have increasingly come to justify the costs and difficulties of the Games on the basis of promises to improve the lives of the young and the poor. Drawing on a six year qualitative and comparative study of homeless and marginally housed young people living in the shadow of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics, I argue that a positive legacy for the young and the poor is not only missing, but in fact belies the negative impacts felt by these populations within host cities. This is particularly troubling in light of the ever-increasing proportion of public funds that are used to pay for these mega-sporting events.  This presentation will focus in particular on the London findings, and will explore impacts on housing, employment, and vulnerability to policing for marginally housed youth in Stratford, East London before, during, and after the 2012 London Games.  

Biography: 
Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly is the author of Olympic Exclusions: Youth, Poverty, and Social Legacies (Routledge 2016), and Citizen Youth: Culture, Activism, and Agency in a Neoliberal Era (Palgrave MacMillan, 2011). She is the co-author (with J. Dillabough) of Lost Youth in the Global City: Class, Culture, and the Urban Imaginary (Routledge, 2010), and the co-editor (with S. Poyntz) of Phenomenology of Youth Cultures and Globalization: Lifeworlds and Surplus Meanings in Changing Times (Routledge 2015). Dr. Kennelly’s current research focuses on homeless young people’s experiences of citizenship and belonging, as well as what is needed to effectively support them back into housing. Her work has appeared in a number of national and international peer-reviewed journals, including British Journal of Sociology of Education, British Journal of Criminology, Sociology, Review of Education Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, Citizenship Studies, Visual Studies, Journal of Youth Studies, Ethnography, Feminist Theory, Young, Sociological Research Online, and Gender and Education. 

For more details and to book please see the attached flyer and/or visit:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/olympic-exclusions-youth-poverty-and-social-legacies-tickets-32153244219