London Olympics of 2012. PDF
Preview London Olympics of 2012.
GlobalCultureandSportSeries SeriesEditors:StephenWagg,Professor,LeedsBeckettUniversity,UK,andDavid Andrews, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Maryland SchoolofPublicHealth,USA Titlesinclude: StephenWagg THELONDONOLYMPICSOF2012 Politics,PromisesandLegacy TendaiChariandNhamoA.Mhiripiri(editors) AFRICANFOOTBALL,IDENTITYPOLITICSANDGLOBALMEDIANARRATIVES TheLegacyoftheFIFA2010WorldCup JesperAndreassonandThomasJohansson THEGLOBALGYM Gender,HealthandPedagogies ChukaOnwumechiliandGerardAkindes(editors) IDENTITYANDNATIONINAFRICANFOOTBALL Fans,CommunityandClubs NicoSchulenkorfandDarylAdair(editors) GLOBALSPORT-FOR-DEVELOPMENT CriticalPerspectives AlejandroQuiroga FOOTBALLANDNATIONALIDENTITIESINSPAIN JohnKaramichas THEOLYMPICGAMESANDTHEENVIRONMENT AaaronBeacom INTERNATIONALDIPLOMACYANDTHEOLYMPICMOVEMENT TheNewMediators DikaiaChatziefstathiouandIanP.Henry DISCOURSESOFOLYMPISM FromtheSorbonne1894toLondon2012 MikeDennisandJonathanGrix SPORTUNDERCOMMUNISM BehindtheEastGerman‘Miracle’ MahfoudAmara SPORT,POLITICSANDSOCIETYINTHEARABWORLD GraemeHayesandJohnKaramichas(editors) OLYMPICGAMES,MEGA-EVENTSANDCIVILSOCIETIES PeterMillward THEGLOBALFOOTBALLLEAGUE HollyThorpe SNOWBOARDINGBODIESINTHEORYANDPRACTICE JonathanLongandKarlSpracklen(editors) SPORTANDCHALLENGESTORACISM JohnHarris RUGBYUNIONANDGLOBALIZATION AnOdd-ShapedWorld PirkkoMarkula(editor) OLYMPICWOMENANDTHEMEDIA InternationalPerspectives RogerLevermoreandAaronBeacom(editors) SPORTANDINTERNATIONALDEVELOPMENT GlobalCultureandSportSeries SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–57818–0(Hardback) (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNsquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England The London Olympics of 2012 Politics, Promises and Legacy Stephen Wagg LeedsBeckettUniversity,UK ©StephenWagg2015 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2015by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-57644-9 ISBN 978-1-137-32634-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137326348 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. For ‘Logsplitter’, with love Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 TheContemporaryOlympicGames–Commercial JuggernautorthePriceofProgress? 1 2 TheGamesCometoLondon 14 3 ‘ItRemainsUnclearHowLocalPeopleWillBenefit...’: Post-Bid,Pre-Games–PrognosticationandProtest 29 4 LookingforInspiration:ThePoliticsoftheOlympicFlame atLondon2012 44 5 ‘IsambardKingdomBrunelWasn’taMarxist’:TheOpening CeremonyofLondon2012 61 6 ‘JustPutDownthePepsi...’:London2012andthe Corporations 90 7 HowGoodDoesThatFeel?London2012:Mediaand Celebrity 134 8 IslandsofGentrification?London2012:PoliticsandLegacy 160 SelectBibliography 196 Index 202 vii Acknowledgements Thanks, for various help, advice and expressions of interest, to: my daughterCassie,HelenLenskyj,PeterBramham,GavinPoynter,Andrew James, Jon Dart, Brett Lashua, Dave Edwards, Ron Greenall, Catherine Baker,JackieHogan,AnnikaOettler,MarkJames,SteveGreenfield,Guy OsbornandAnnaMcMullenatLabourBehindtheLabel;and,forallthose things, along with love and companionship, to my partner Saronne Rubyan. viii 1 The Contemporary Olympic Games – Commercial Juggernaut or the Price of Progress? WhenImentionedtoher,inthesummerof2014,thatIwasplanning to write a book about the politics of the London Olympics of 2012, my daughter, worldly-wise and in her later 30s, told me to be care- ful: these Games were, after all, very popular – no sense, therefore, in my making myself some kind of pariah by criticising them in print. This (perfectly sound) piece of advice prompts a number of important prefatorycomments. First,popularityshouldneverbeabartocriticalanalysis.Theappar- ently near-universal acclaim for a particular view or event itself raises questions:asacharacterinJamesLeeBurke’sexcellentnovelIntheMoon ofRedPoniesremarks,‘Mydadhadagreatexpression.He’dsay“Son,if everybody agrees on it, it’s wrong”’.1 Second, it’s fair to say that pub- lic appreciation of this event – as with most such events – cannot be read necessarily as an endorsement of its political circumstances; these circumstances,inthecaseofLondon2012,wereseldomsubjecttosus- tained public scrutiny. (A substantial minority objected to the Games, in any case.) Third, and related to this, a critical sociology of sport has been well established in international scholarship since the 1980s and the people who practise it are rarely opposed to sports or sports eventsthemselves–merelytotheirpoliticalcontext.Sociologistshave, for example, produced strong and well-grounded critiques of FIFA, the governing body of world football2; this, of course, has not precluded their enjoyment of football itself. Nor, indeed, has it prevented them fromwatchinginternationalmatches. 1JamesLeeBurke,IntheMoonofRedPonies(London:Phoenix,2005),p.172. 2I have principally in mind here the widely admired work of Professors John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson. See, for instance, their FIFA and the Contest for WorldFootball(Cambridge:PolityPress,1998)andsubsequentGreatBallsofFire (Edinburgh:Mainstream,1999). 1
The list of books you might like
