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The geopolitics of organizing mega-events
... While the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is smaller than the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup or a World Expo, both in terms of duration and the number of visitors, it is frequently considered a mega-event (e.g. Müller & Steyaert, 2013). Classified as a cultural event, the ESC shares essential characteristics with mega-sports events due to its global outreach and the fact that television viewers all over the world (estimated at 125 million annually) far outnumber the fans on-site (estimated at tens of thousands). ...
... For the host countries, the event offers the opportunity to present themselves to a huge audience (Fleischer & Felsenstein, 2002). Müller and Steyaert (2013) name the ESC together with events such as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games or the Expo World Fair as 'the ultimate trophy in the intensified competition for public attention and investment' (p. 139). ...
Mega-events can have different types of effects, both tangible and intangible, for host cities or countries. For the case of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Baku, Azerbaijan, this study combines an economic impact study and two country image assessments carried out before and after this mega-event in an emerging tourist destination. Economic impacts are calculated based on on-site, face-to-face visitor surveys during the ESC and an input–output model. Image effects are measured with a representative two-wave online panel in Austria, which was selected as a potential tourist source market for Azerbaijan. The study finds that visitor expenditures produce €3.3 million of direct and indirect income in terms of local wages and salaries. Additionally, Azerbaijan’s image improved significantly through the mega-event, especially with young, cosmopolitan people. Surprisingly, the country’s image significantly improved even among people who did not watch the ESC on TV, due to extensive media coverage.
... The related studies have mostly focused on the economic impacts (Mair, Chien, Kelly, & Derrington, 2021;Ritchie, Chien, & Shipway, 2020) as well as the effects on tourist and visitor numbers (Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011). They also highlight the capacity of sports megaevents to improve the image of a city or a country by demonstrating their capacity to attract investment (Müller & Steyaert, 2013). Lastly, the literature highlights environmental impacts such as changes to land use and transportation systems (Karadakis & Kaplanidou, 2012;Preuss, 2013). ...
since the start of the modern Olympic Games, and more recently the Paralympic Games, urban development linked to this mega-event has changed: the mono-stadium model typical of the early modern Games has been replaced by the model of an Olympic district. Because the events take place across multiple sites, the Games are often associated with investments in transportation. the paper aims to explore how, even in the case of a failed bid to stage the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPGs), bidding for the Games can give rise to urban developments. in particular, bidding to host the Games can contribute to the reinforcement of transportation infrastructure. this study draws upon the case of the istanbul bid. the istanbul case is analyzed from the perspective of the bidding process before and after the reference to the Olympic committee. the study examines the changes in the capacity of the transportation and tourist infrastructure through the official reports, statistics and annuals, as well as related literature. the case shows how bidding for big events such as the OPGs can drive investment and directly or indirectly impact economic activities, in particular in the tourism sector, whatever the result of the bidding process.
... Any large-scale event provides the host country with an opportunity to improve its image, present itself to an international community, and associate positive aspects of the event with its country image (Müller and Steyaert, 2013). In this process, the event image construct is linked to the country image, and results in positive associations being made with the country (Keller, 1993). ...
In recent decades, numerous studies have examined the effect of (mega-) events on host countries. Various authors have assessed how events can help countries and destinations both from an economic and an image perspective (Wong and Tang, 2016). In this regard, a country may benefit from a mega-event directly, meaning economically through increased tourism activities, infrastructure investments and international funding, and indirectly, through an improvement in the host country’s image thanks to positive advertising and media coverage related to the event.
... Generally, any large-scale mega-event represents an opportunity to add a new aspect to a country image (Müller & Steyaert, 2013). Here, the new image construct (mega-event) is linked to the present image construct (country image) and may positively affect the latter. ...
In 2012, Azerbaijan hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. For this emerging tourism-oriented country, the cultural mega-event represented a unique opportunity to present itself to a broad international public and construct a positive country image. The present longitudinal study explores how consumer images of Azerbaijan as a country were formed and changed as a result of the nation’s hosting of this event. By measuring the same respondents’ country image evaluations before and after the event, the present findings shed light on consumers’ processes of country-image formation and illuminate the event’s impact on Azerbaijan’s country image.
... Different from the other mega-events, the Olympic Games were regarded as the world's "most prestigious" mega-events (Essex & Chalkley, 1998), "the largest" (Müller & Steyaert, 2013) "the most complex" (Kaplanidou & Karadakis, 2010) and the "most important international" (Rose & Spiegel, 2011) sporting event, and even labeled as the "global properties" (O'Reilly, Lyberger, McCarthy, & Séguin, 2008). Since 1896, except during the First and Second World Wars, the modern Olympic Games have been held every four years for over a hundred years. ...
... Different from the other mega-events, the Olympic Games were regarded as the world's "most prestigious" mega-events (Essex & Chalkley, 1998), "the largest" (Müller & Steyaert, 2013) "the most complex" (Kaplanidou & Karadakis, 2010) and the "most important international" (Rose & Spiegel, 2011) sporting event, and even labeled as the "global properties" (O'Reilly, Lyberger, McCarthy, & Séguin, 2008). Since 1896, except during the First and Second World Wars, the modern Olympic Games have been held every four years for over a hundred years. ...
... Organizowanie wielkich imprez sportowych wiązało się z podniesieniem prestiżu danego państwa, jednak nabrało szczególnego znaczenia wraz z pojawieniem się państw aspirujących do lepszej pozycji na arenie międzynarodowej. Geografia wielkich imprez sportowych tradycyjnie odzwierciedlała międzynarodowe relacje władzy -przez lata wśród krajów-organizatorów dominowały wysoko uprzemysłowione państwa Zachodu (Müller, Steyaert 2013 Organizacja wielkiej imprezy sportowej jest bardzo pożądana przez "aspirujące kraje rozwijające się", czy też kraje, które -według określenia Janisa van der Westhuizena i Davida Blacka (2004) -cierpią na "półperyferyjną wrażliwość", cechującą się poczuciem zagrożenia, dążeniem do poprawy statusu i jednoczesną obawą przed marginalizacją. Z ich perspektywy dominacja państw zachodnich wśród organizatorów wielkich imprez sportowych jest jednym z przejawów ich pozycji w międzynarodowej strukturze władzy. ...
Jak przebiegały przygotowania do Euro 2012 w Polsce? Jakie korzyści polityczne, gospodarcze i społeczne widzieli w tym procesie przedstawiciele polskich instytucji? Czy relacje z globalną organizacją sportową miały wpływ na funkcjonowanie państwa? A może relacje z polskimi instytucjami miały wpływ na globalną organizację?
Książka opisuje proces globalizacji organizacji sportowych, a także globalny wymiar wielkich imprez sportowych na tle przemian roli państwa narodowego. Jest również wciągającą opowieścią przedstawiająca Euro 2012 zza kulis – widziane oczami osób najbardziej zaangażowanych w jego zorganizowanie. Od pierwszej, szalonej myśli, by aplikować, przez żmudne tworzenie wniosku aplikacyjnego i zbieranie gwarancji, aż po przygotowania samych Mistrzostw i wnioski po ich zakończeniu.
This article offers a theoretical reflection about how the power relations within the international political system configure national recognition in the context of sport. Theoretical developments of soft power are complemented with a neoclassical realist approach, due to the fact that countries shape their sports policies and estimate their potential scope and impact according to their relative capacities in the international scenario.
The starting point is that states and sub-state governments pursue the same political goals in international sport: influencing international arena through diplomatic strategies, increasing patriotism and the nation´s international prestige through the organisation of sports mega-events, legitimising their – regional or national – governments through medals and victories, etc. However, only the states are initially legitimised to achieve such goals due to the sports statehood, meaning in this context that International Sports Federations and International Olympic Committee define the term country as an independent state recognised by the international community.
Analysing the cases of China–Taiwan and Serbia–Kosovo, the conclusion is that without a consensus between the disputing parties, national recognition in international sport will not depend so much on the development of a soft power strategy, but on the relative capacities of countries to impose their political criterion in the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee and the International Sports Federations.
In contemporary discourse, it is increasingly conventional to find mega-events being hosted in countries in the Global South, and their resultant impacts and legacies are raising new challenges as to the raison d’etre behind their organisation, and the legacy impacts that they might engender. South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM was the first ever to occur on the continent. The development and sustainability of stadia usually gains prominence among hosts seeking to deliver sustainable mega-events. In preparation for the ventures, the construction of stadia has often been accompanied by contentious debates about the costs involved, and the post-event sustainability. A plethora of studies indicates that mega-events impact on destinations hosting them, either positively or negatively. The current study delves into the sustainability perspectives of South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM, focusing on the evaluation of the post-event-legacy-impact dimensions of the stadia in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Grounded within the political economy and stakeholder theories, and the mega-event legacy framework and sustainability concept, the epistemology adopted a critical review process of the existing rhetoric and empirical enunciations.
Theoretically, the study underpins upon a postulation of a sustainable stadium development legacy framework for the organisation flagship events of this nature that considers the context of developing economies and broadens the epistemological basis within the field of mega-event research. The theoretical framework of this research further articulates and underscores the need for the examination of stakeholder perceptions across a range of groups, thereby allowing for the unpacking of the extent to which differences or similarities can be attributed to the socio-demographic profiles concerned. The framework suggests that in the context of developing economies, mega-event infrastructure planning needs a new strategic thrust in relation to legacy considerations and sustainability outcomes. Mixed (qualitative and quantitative) techniques were employed to collect the required data. In total, 1120 resident questionnaires were completed (400 in Cape Town, 320 in Durban, and 400 in Port Elizabeth), using the systematic stratified random sampling method. The purposive sampling technique was employed in targeting seven key informants from the relevant stakeholder organisations in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
Significantly, the findings outlined the legacy expectations, impacts and implications of South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM. In addition, statistical differences and similarities in relation to perceptions were observed between the resident and stakeholder groups in all three case study areas. The study revealed support for the construction of the stadia for the 2010 FIFA World CupTM that was mainly linked to the novelty legacy impacts of the stadia on the community members concerned. Furthermore, the outcomes enunciated contributions towards achieving the sustainability precepts that the construction of the stadia for the purpose of hosting such flagship events prefigured. While the residents and the key resource persons agreed that the stadia had the potential to attract positive legacy outcomes to their respective communities, one of the overwhelming outcomes was the unanimous agreement that the costs of maintenance and operation of the stadia were currently exorbitant, and they were not covered by the income generated by the stadia. Furthermore, the findings indicate that, even though the residents and the other stakeholders were in agreement with regards to the costs of maintenance being exorbitant, there was an almost identical unanimity in their responses, in respect of the need to demolish the stadia, with most of them refuting such. However, recommendations were proposed for the need for effective strategies to be put in place to engender the sustainability of the edifices in the long-term.
Emerging countries, especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), bid to organise sporting mega-events out of a desire to pursue international political and economic promotion,and to strengthen political legitimacy and national cohesion at a domestic level. With these ideas as a starting point, this article analyses the extent to which these mega-events have served the initial purposes of the BRICS, given that, rather than showing their strengths as originally hoped, they have revealed a series of weaknesses. This allows us to question the use of sporting mega-events as a national and international political and economic strategy.
The world of sports is a reflection of the world of politics. It is becoming increasingly multipolar with the emerging states hosting mega sporting events. Firstly, the article problematizes the concept of multipolarity and, secondly, globalisation by questioning whether the Olympic Games reinforce national identities and promote national interests by using Olympic diplomacy as a soft power tool. In doing so, the article explores the correlation between the changes in international affairs and the hosting of and participation at the Olympic Games by emerging states such as Brazil, China and Russia. The analysis distinguishes globalisation from the role of the nation-state, by highlighting the evident differences between emerging states in terms of hosting the Games, but also takes into consideration geopolitical and geo-economic parameters.
Emerging countries, especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), bid to organise sporting mega-events out of a desire to pursue international political and economic promotion, and to strengthen political legitimacy and national cohesion at a domestic level. With these ideas as a starting point, this article analyses the extent to which these mega-events have served the initial purposes of the BRICS, given that, rather than showing their strengths as originally hoped, they have revealed a series of weaknesses. This allows us to question the use of sporting mega-events as a national and international political and economic strategy.
The politics of gay and transgender visibility and representation at the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual televised popular music festival presented to viewers as a contest between European nations, show that processes of interest to Queer International Relations do not just involve states or even international institutions; national and transnational popular geopolitics over ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights’ and ‘Europeanness’ equally constitute the understandings of ‘the international’ with which Queer International Relations is concerned. Building on Cynthia Weber’s reading the persona of the 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst with ‘queer intellectual curiosity’, this article demonstrates that Eurovision shifted from, in the late 1990s, an emerging site of gay and trans visibility to, by 2008–2014, part of a larger discursive circuit taking in international mega-events like the Olympics, international human-rights advocacy, Europe–Russia relations and the politics of state homophobia and transphobia. Contest organisers thus had to take positions — ranging from detachment to celebration — about ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender’ politics in host states and the Eurovision region. The construction of spatio-temporal hierarchies around attitudes to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, however, revealed exclusions that corroborate other critical arguments on the reconfiguration of national and European identities around ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality’.
This paper provides an analysis on internet news reports about the Beijing Olympics 2008 and how China signaled throughout the event to external target groups. The analysis shows how the geographical areas China, USA, Europe and the “Rest of the World” perceived the Games. The results were interpreted regarding the principal agent theories' signaling to reduce information asymmetry for business and tourism and costly signaling to generate symbolic capital. Seven hundred and forty news reports were collected between 1 July and 30 September 2008, using Google Alerts with the keywords “Olympic Games Beijing 2008”. The reports were analysed with a quantitative content analysis using a coding frame. The results show that China used the Games to signal primarily to potential business partners/investors. The four geographical areas identified have different communication patterns about the Olympics. China's success to signal positively was weakened by several negative news reports.
Mega events focus the world’s attention on a particular place and a nation and the success thereof, in either hosting or performing well in the event. Throughout the world, expectations were running high that China would make use of hosting the Beijing Games to promote a positive image to the world. This article takes a critical look at the discourse on the Beijing Games as a public diplomacy tool. Empirical data from global opinion polls are analyzed to demonstrate the weak impact of even the world’s largest sport mega event on altering global perceptions. Two main propositions will be advanced: First, expectations that a sports event can improve the image of a country are overrated; second, having been locked in the Olympic “double-bind,” a system of contradictory messages to which the host is simultaneously obliged, China had no chance in the contest for meaning-making which the Western media won hands down.
This article argues that much of the literature on Olympic cities misperceives the role played by a city’s business and political
elites due to the failure to take into account the historical and socioeconomic circumstances of the country concerned. The
article demonstrates that the Chinese Communist Party used the Olympics as a vehicle to consolidate its legitimacy and Beijing
as a showpiece to project the country’s identity and modernity internationally. The emphasis here is the interests of the
Party and not urban entrepreneurialism. The essential contribution of this article is to propose a matrix as a tool for exploring
the motivations of cities and countries for hosting the Olympics. The matrix comprises Olympic cities in democratic and authoritarian,
and in developed and developing, countries.
KeywordsOlympics-Urban entrepreneurialism-Beijing-Democratic and authoritarian countries
Is America still Number 1? A leading scholar of international politics and former State Department official takes issue with Paul Kennedy and others and clearly demonstrates that the United States is still the dominant world power, with no challenger in sight. But analogies about decline only divert policy makers from creating effective strategies for the future, says Nye. The nature of power has changed. The real-and unprecedented-challenge is managing the transition to growing global interdependence.
Whether it is a comparative cultural, critical investigative, anthropologically rooted, or media-oriented approach to understanding the Olympic phenomenon, it is notable that the place of the sponsor in the cultural and social construction of the Games is less subject to scrutiny than are other aspects of the event, such as the media coverage, the nationalist elements, and selected ceremonial dimensions. The relationships within the purported Olympic Family-in particular, the increasing profile and influence of corporate partners of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)-have received less extensive or sustained critical analysis. In a trilogy of studies, Andrew Jennings has pursued a relentless course of investigative journalism (Symson and Jennings 1992; Jennings and Sambrook 2000; Jennings 1996). His works have revealed the underlying political and economic interests that have driven the Games in the period since the former Francoist Juan Antonio Samaranch's succession to the IOC presidency in 1980, and the success of the 1984 Los Angeles Games that rewrote the rules for the staging of the international sporting event. If the modern Olympics was in its early years (1896-1928) based upon fragile alliances of political, cultural, and economic interests, developing as a more explicitly political phenomenon from 1932 to 1980, Los Angeles 1984 introduced a new economic order that underpinned the initial survival of the Games-on the with- drawal of Teheran, Los Angeles was the only candidate to stage the event-and its consequent expansion and escalation (Tomlinson 2005a, 50-56; Tomlinson 2005b). Writing on the eve of the 1984 event, Richard Gruneau argued that for some time sporting practice had been incorporated into an expanding international capitalist marketplace, but that Los Angeles' capacity to rewrite the rules of the host city's game produced a "unique" and "one of the most publicly visible business deals in the history of corporate capitalism" (Gruneau 1984, 11). Anything was now up for sponsorship, from the AT&T-sponsored torch relay to the only two newly constructed sites, the McDonald's Olympic pool and the Southland Corporation velodrome (Tomlinson 2006a, 167); after the event, the organizing committee reported a surplus of more than US$222 million. The claimed and perceived success of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 established the framework for the political economy of future Games, based upon escalating media rights and forms of corporate sponsorship secured by both the IOC and the local organizing committees of the host city: "From that point on, the Games were guaranteed a future as one of the most high-profile global commodities" (Tomlinson 2005a, 56). A study focusing upon the Beijing event has foregrounded this political economy, arguing that "there is an extraordinary convergence, or elective affinity, between modern Olympism and the ideals and tendencies of modern market capitalism" (Close et al. 2007, 1-2, 117). The Beijing Olympiad and Olympics are seen, in this light, as a catalyst "in the re-alignment process of the global political economy" (Close et al. 2007, 2, 117), as well as a focus for some potential internal reform, in relation to human rights. The term elective affinity derives from the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, whose studies were, to some degree, framed as a methodological and epistemological debate with what he saw as a form of economic determinism in the work of Karl Marx. An elective afnity could be identified, Weber proposed, between, say, a set of religious beliefs and a particular social group or system (Weber 1948, 62-63), and he referred-in contemporaneous exchanges concerning his study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 1965)-to "the unique and long-established elective affinity of Calvinism to capitalism" (Weber 2001, 107). The notion of elective affinity refers, therefore, to a correspondence between sources of meaning that may not initially seem to be connected: "the contents of one system of meaning engender a tendency for adherents to build and pursue the other system of meaning" (Scott and Marshall 2005, 182). Adapted to the Olympic context the argument goes that the Olympic Ideals or Movement converge with the spirit of contemporary market capitalism. The implication here is that neither one determines the other, but that the values of the two meaning-systems are conducive to a kind of reciprocal development. Weber concluded The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism on a cautionary note, claiming that it was not his aim to "substitute for a one-sided materialistic an equally one-sided spiritualistic causal interpretation of culture and history" (Weber 1965, 183). "Historical truth," he implied, does not lie in the application of such theoretical extremes. Close et al. offer the synonyms for elective affinity of mutual attraction and irresistible mutual desire (2007, 118). When referring to Beijing as a catalyst they refer to how the city/event and the period (the Olympiad) leading up to the event will contribute to re-alignments of both the overall global political economy (2) and the "political economy arena of Chinese society" (117). They highlight ve developments: deepening institutionalization, on a global scale, of Olympism; a global spread of the doctrine of individualism, in Western terms; global scales of advance in liberal democracy and market capitalism; a consolidation of global society within the continuing progress of globalization; and China's emergence as a superpower and player in the political economy, in both regional and global terms. These developments are said to share "a formidable array of elective affinities" (2). All five developments are presented with the adjectival label "global," which seems to be the core feature of the meaning-systems that are claimed as converging in the period of the Beijing Olympiad and Games. This is a bold claim: That one sporting mega-event crystallizes political, economic, cultural, and social changes at all conceivable levels of social organization. The boldness of the conception may blur the specifies of the analysis, and this question will be returned to in the concluding section of this chapter. Close et al., though, rightly recognize the corporate partners as at the heart of what the authors call the "Olympic social compact." The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) is cited as embracing, in its own sponsorship program, the "IOC's commitment to a market-oriented, private-sector partnership approach to financing the Olympics . . ." (99): with the way in which the IOC seems to have been convinced by the Chinese delegation's presentation and promises at the IOC's session in Moscow on 13 July 2001. (Close et al. 2007, 99).
Soft power is the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than coercion or payment. A country's soft power rests on its resources of culture, values, and policies. A smart power strategy combines hard and soft power resources. Public diplomacy has a long history as a means of promoting a country's soft power and was essential in winning the cold war. The current struggle against transnational terrorism is a struggle to win hearts and minds, and the current overreliance on hard power alone is not the path to success. Public diplomacy is an important tool in the arsenal of smart power, but smart public diplomacy requires an understanding of the roles of credibility, self-criticism, and civil society in generating soft power.
This article discusses how the Olympics serve as a meaningfully political act at least as much as a sporting event, with China's ambitions to dominate the 2008 games something of a political analogy for the logic of its greater ambitions in Asia and the world. Seeing the spectacle as politics by other means, this analysis takes up the example of how the 2008 Beijing games are the latest leg of an old project that has seen muscular Christian motivations in China morph into notions of 'face' that articulate with China's elevated geopolitical position in the world today. Its 'higher weight-class' position is here analysed as a two-front communicative ritual operation aimed both inwardly at the Chinese populace, and outwardly at an international audience of global neighbour-states.
Using the example of Sydney's 2000 Olympic bid, this paper examines the relationship between hallmark events and three characteristics of the post-modern city: government policies informed by entrepreneurial rather than welfare goals; the transformation of the city into a product to generate 'cultural capital'; and, the importance of marketing places. Two themes are discussed in the analysis of the Sydney Olympic Bid Limited's invitation material. First, within the theoretical framework of Harvey's time-space compression, the bid is examined as a manifestation of the specific needs of the communicators and a product of the broader socio-political system. Secondly, the ideological and rhetorical meanings of selected city images are examined within the theoretical contests of Lefebvre-Shield's process of 'social spatialisation'. The selection, promotion and presentation of Sydney images are inextricably bound up with de Coubertine's visions of peace and harmony between peoples. Utilising the themes of multiculturalism and environment, the paper illustrates how an Olympic spectacle can defuse, convert and contradict the 'realities' of post-colonial racism and environmental degradation.
In recent years, urban governance has become increasingly preoccupied with the exploration of new ways in which to foster and encourage local development and employment growth. Such an entrepreneurial stance contrasts with the managerial practices of earlier decades which primarily focussed on the local provision of services, facilities and benefits to urban populations. This paper explores the context of this shift from managerialism to entrepreneurialism in urban governance and seeks to show how mechanisms of inter-urban competition shape outcomes and generate macroeconomic consequences. The relations between urban change and economic development are thereby brought into focus in a period characterised by considerable economic and political instability.
What is the significance of the fact that several recent or upcoming sport mega-events are hosted by emerging powers such as China (the 2008 Beijing Games), India (2010 Commonwealth Games), South Africa (2010 FIFA World Cup), Russia (2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi) or Brazil (2014 FIFA World Cup)? This paper analyses events hosted by three states of the emerging power (or so-called BRICSA) axis. These are the 2008 Olympics, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games. It suggests that the hosting of such events by today's emerging powers occurs through a common agenda: to showcase economic achievements, to signal diplomatic stature or to project, in the absence of other forms of international influence, soft power. Furthermore, emerging powers can reshape the way in which events are viewed, planned for and commercialized, and by which they impact upon stakeholders. In all, sport mega-events constitute a key part of the political imagineering of emerging powers, serving as a focal point both for the type of society and state these authorities try to create, as well as for the position in the international order these rulers attempt to craft. While this strategy has some success, it also tends to come at some material and symbolic costs for these states.
After the spectacle of Beijing 2008, China's domestic prestige has been both enhanced and rigorously called into question. Its international position has likewise been both self-evidently improved and critically (some would say ‘aggressively’) examined. Any amount of critical distance in assessment forces us to recognize the real improvements China has made that have been illuminated via the Games, right alongside the serious challenges the country faces – both those arising as a result of its Olympic efforts, and those that have been there all along. ‘Ordeals’ to come have conventionally been categorized in terms of ‘internal’ domestic issues vs. ‘external’ international issues, despite the obvious dependence of the latter on the former. Along with the obvious ‘realist’ international political paradigm of state interaction, the ebb and flow of Chinese suzerainty throughout history casts today's Chinese polity in a familiar game of position, the politics of which are as cosmological as not. Viewed in anthropological terms, the Beijing Games was a meaningful event in an ongoing process where the Olympics as political ritual energizes a certain pregnant geopolitics, the participating audience of which includes all other polities – and especially those in the Pacific Rim region. This analysis argues that the ritual process of the 2008 Games indexes a logic that renders recent resource diplomacy and global position building productively understandable; a process comparable in its ritual structure to the contemporary seeding of Confucian Centres across the world.
This study examines the relationship between architecture and nation building in the age of globalization, with an analysis of the debates and controversies about the National Stadium, the main sports venue for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The article argues that nationalism, along with the cultural ideology of global consumerism, drives the production of flagship architectural projects in China. The dilemma between nationalism and global consumerism has led state politicians and bureaucrats to opt for a global architectural language to narrate national ambitions. The study reveals the rationale underlying the search for global architecture among political elites in China, as well as its mixed consequences for local cultural discourses and politics.
This paper examines the preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, and links it to debates on state rescaling and urban entrepreneurialism in megaprojects. It is argued that the Olympic megaproject in Sochi follows a model of state dirigisme which accords a salient role to the national state. Although private sector companies act as investors, the national state steers the planning process and directs the investment. This arrangement is reflected in a business – state relationship in which the boundaries between the public and the private sector become blurred, as the state establishes directive control over companies. The model of state dirigisme is underpinned by a nationalist narrative which frames the Olympic Games not primarily as a stimulus for economic development and global competitiveness but as a contribution to Russian greatness. This mode of governing the Olympic Games deviates from the model of entrepreneurial governance and the concomitant state rescaling, dominant in megaprojects in North America and Western Europe, in according a prominent role to the national state rather than to market-led development pushed by cities as lead actors.
A nation brand is a complicated multi-facet construct. Even the critics of nation branding have admitted that nation brands exist. What they dispute is what nation branding refers to, and how a nation can be branded. This article aims to clarify some misunderstandings about nation branding. A conceptual framework is developed to illustrate the origins and different interpretations of the concept. Detailed comparisons are drawn between nation branding and commercial branding. A new definition is offered, which emphasises the need to shift from branding the nation to nation image management. The use of nation image management is not only a change of terms but also helps overcome the public scepticism over the use of branding, and clarifies what can be branded and what cannot be branded.
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