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The Politics of Sanctioning Events. Prof Malcolm Foley / Daniel Turner Making the case for events. Context and history. Important to understand not just the decision to bid but also the decision to award peripatetic events.
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The Politics of Sanctioning Events Prof Malcolm Foley / Daniel Turner Making the case for events
Context and history • Important to understand not just the decision to bid but also the decision to award peripatetic events. • Move from low impact to high impact events (Essex and Chalkley, 1998) • Increasing instrumentality underpinning the bidding/awarding of peripatetic events. • Olympics: From St Louis 1904 to London 2012 • European Capital of Culture: From Florence/Paris to Glasgow/Liverpool • From sport and culture to social change in 100 years. • Increasing desires of the sanctioning body as to what the event should deliver…
The new rules of engagement…. • Peripatetic events must deliver…. The spectacle! • “The Best Games Ever” • “the power of corporate hype linked with global television is a marvellous machine for promoting sports” (The Economist 1996)
The new rules of engagement… • Peripatetic events must deliver…. Community involvement! • “If one had to say one thing that swung it for Liverpool, it would have to be there was a greater sense there that the whole city is involved in the bid and behind the bid.” – Tessa Jowell • Portugal Euro 2004 Application ‘mascot’ • No room for dissenting voices.
The new rules of engagement… • Peripatetic events must deliver…. Urban transformation! • The growing importance of legacy. • Physical infrastructure as a lasting reminder of the event.
The new rules of engagement… • Peripatetic events must deliver…. World peace! • Increasingly events given to cities and nation states with a transnational agenda • Japan / Korea 2002, Euro 2008, Commonwealth Games = The Friendly Games • Sport and Culture used to bring the world together in a ‘non-political’ space.
The new rules of engagement… • Peripatetic events must deliver… all things to all people! • Responses to contemporary global issues. • The ‘eco-friendly’ event • The ‘secure’ event • Sport with Culture, Culture with Sport and Education for all! (e.g cultural legacy of Games)
Underlying reasons for sanctioning decisions? • Emerging commercial markets • Commercial partners pressurising the development of key market places around the globe • Beijing 2008, USA 1994 • Increase the value of the currency • Event ‘rotation’ ensures a bidding frenzy as ‘it’s our last chance til until the next rotation’ • See FIFA World Cup, European Capital of Culture • A safe event for self-interests • Security from ambush marketing • Security from problematic message (Free Tibet)
Sanctioning for the future… • ‘The compulsive and obsessive, continuous, unstoppable, forever incomplete modernisation, the overwhelming and ineradicable, unquenchable thirst… for doing more of the same in the future’ (Bauman, 2000:28) – The juggernaught of the peripatetic mega-event. • Legitimation of the self / profession (Foucault) • The over-riding purpose of the event is to legitimate the sanctioning of future events by the awarding body.