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Olympic Values: arguing the case for the Games

Olympic Values: arguing the case for the Games. Professor Ian Henry Centre of Olympic Studies & Research “Going for Gold”: Enriching student learning through the 2012 Games HTLSC Conference November 9 th 2010 Oxford. Structure of the Presentation.

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Olympic Values: arguing the case for the Games

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  1. Olympic Values: arguing the case for the Games Professor Ian Henry Centre of Olympic Studies & Research • “Going for Gold”: Enriching student learning through the 2012 Games • HTLSC Conference • November 9th 2010 • Oxford

  2. Structure of the Presentation • Three major approaches to evaluation of the Olympic phenomenon • Six Significant Dimensions of the Arguments for the Costs and Benefits of the Olympic Games / Movement • Beyond Legacy – valuing the process

  3. Part OneThree major approaches to evaluation of the Olympic phenomenon • Unapologetic advocacy (the ‘naïvely uncritical’); • Critical reflexivity: steering between the uncritical idealism and the unreflexive approach of some forms of social critique; • Social critique: deconstructing the phenomenon (at its worst an unreflexive dismantling).

  4. Part 2Six Significant Dimensions: ‘thumbnail’ accounts of the arguments for the costs and benefits of the Olympic Games / Movement • The cultural dimension • The economic dimension • The political dimension • The social dimension • The environmental dimension • The sporting dimension

  5. (a) The cultural dimension • The size of the audience (4.7 bn.) • Chrono-cultural importance (Roche) • ‘Cultural’ = reproducing and / or challenging meanings: • Political meanings: Soviet bloc; Los Angeles and the free market • Gender • Euro-centrism • Orientalism • Interculturalism – the London Bid and the use of multiculturalism as a theme.

  6. Olympics and Cultural messages re interculturalism Bahrain's Ruqaya Al Ghasara, Olympic semi-finalist Asian Games 200 Metres gold medal winner Doha, December 2006

  7. (b) The economic dimension • The levels of public sector investment and debt (Montreal, Athens) • The Market model Los Angeles 1984 (and Atlanta 1996) • Calculating the cost – the pessimist’s and the optimist’s view.

  8. Revenues and Operational Costs OCOGs in $US millions (i.e. excluding all capital except temporary facilities) Source Preuss 2004 (NB Athens, Beijing are estimates at 2003)

  9. (c) The political dimension • Promoting the political legitimacy of the state • Berlin 1936 • China and human rights • The West and Human Rights (US/UK involvement in ‘illegal war’, detention without trial, torture) • The raising of the profile of political issues

  10. (d) The social dimension • Gentrification and displacement June 06, 2007 Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), says in a report that for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, some 1.5 million people are being displaced from their homes.

  11. (e) The environmental dimension • Major criticisms of mega-events in terms of construction, travel, and consumption • Since 1994 UN Environmental Programme and IOC have engaged in partnership to host biennial conferences on sport and environment. • UNEP provides independent assessments / reports • e.g. INDEPENDENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES http://www.unep.org/publications/UNEP-eBooks/BeijingReport_ebook.pdf • The Greening of the Games and the London approach: from carbon neutral (off-setting) to emissions reduction.

  12. (f) The Sporting Dimension • The facility legacy • Athens and London • The participation legacy • The Sydney experience

  13. Athens Games Facility Legacy

  14. Sydney Legacy: Aggregate Activities (Participations per 100 population) Source: VEAL, A. & FRAWLEY, S. 2009. ‘Sport for All’ and Major Sporting Events: Trends in Sport Participation and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism Working Papers. Sydney: Australian Centre for Olympic Studies, School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney.

  15. Part 3: Concluding Remarks • Positive and Negative Legacies • Positive and negative legacies can be identified on any given dimension. The question is less one of what will be the legacythan of what action secures positive outcomes • Benefits of process rather than benefits of legacy (a neo-Habermasian perspective) • It has the potential (not always realised) to become a domain of reflexive communicative action (in Habermasian terms) in which intercultural dialogue might be fostered, a form of discourse ethics promoted, which seeks to identify what might constitute culturally sensitive and ethically desirable outcomes to be achieved (Examples of WADA; FIFA and Muslim Women’s dress). • In a multi-polar world institutional vehicles for discourse become increasingly significant. In the cultural sphere the Olympic Movement offers an example of major cultural significance.

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