Mega-events have long been used by cities as a strategy to secure global recognition and attract future economic investment. However, while cultural mega-events like the European Capital of Culture have become increasingly popular, cities have begun questioning the traditional model of other events such as the Olympic Games with many candidate cities cancelling bids in recent years. This approach to planning and developing cities through mega-events introduces a broad range of physical effects and nuanced institutional changes for cities, particularly for the more sensitive heritage areas of cities. This book explores these issues by first examining the dynamics of cities’ attempts to reduce overall costs and increase the sustainability of these large events by further embedding them within the existing fabric of the city and second by studying in depth the impact on the heritage of host cities. This book investigates three World Heritage Cities: Genoa, Liverpool and Istanbul, each of which have hosted the European Capital of Culture and introduced a variety of opportunities and risks for their heritage. The book highlights the potential benefits and challenges of integrating event and heritage planning to provide lessons that can help future historic cities and heritage decision makers better prepare for such events.

This book analyses case studies of heritage-rich cities that hosted mega-events to discuss emerging challenges, controversies, and accomplishments. The future of mega-events has never been more uncertain. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced an unparalleled level of doubt regarding the kind of mega-events that will take place in the coming years. This book arrives at a quite unique moment of reflection. Prior to 2020, cities were already questioning the traditional format of mega-events (e.g. Olympics and Expo) while other cultural mega-events have been spreading and gaining popularity, thanks in part to typically lower costs of infrastructures and venues, far more adaptable arrangements, spatial distribution and time frame for hosting. In these ways, they have already been demonstrating higher flexibility in which to respond to future health and safety constraints. When it comes to the relation to the existing city, cultural mega-events have been planned, implemented, and studied far more than any other. By leveraging the richness of cultural mega-events, this multidisciplinary collection deepens the intersection between events and cultural heritage. The chapters in this book provide a new theoretical framework, critical questions, and relevant case studies to argue that the nexus between mega-events and heritage is a key challenge for many cities in Europe and beyond. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

This book focuses upon the legacies sought by cities that host major sports events. It analyses how governments, the IOC and others define and measure ‘legacy’. It also focuses upon the challenges and opportunities facing future host cities of mega-events and questions what the global shift in geographical location of mega-events means for sports development and the business of sport and what are the attractions for cities seeking to harness the hosting of a mega-event, and whether there may be longer term consequences for the bidding and hosting major sporting events.

Planning and Managing Smaller Events: Downsizing the Urban Spectacle explores the role of smaller scale events in contributing to the renewal and development of urban societies. This book adopts a case study approach to examine a diverse range of events taking place in towns and cities in Europe, Asia and North America. This volume begins by defining and classifying these kinds of events and then verifying if and how they can provide opportunities for cities and towns without the disadvantages of world-famous large events. It concludes by discussing the growing regional scale of urban phenomena and their transition in post-metropolitan spaces. Planning and Managing Smaller Events: Downsizing the Urban Spectacle will be of interest to government officials and policy makers involved in economic development, urban planning, parks, arts/culture as well as students and researchers interested in urbanism, event management, tourism and recreation.

Global sports events are rarely far from the public eye. Such mega-events are about much more than the sporting competitions themselves. They entail global exposure and intense struggles by different stakeholders. This is the first book to examine sports mega-events from a mobilities perspective. It analyses the ‘mobile construction’ of global sports mega-events and the role this plays in managing labour, imaginaries, policies and legacies. In particular, the book focuses on the tension between the various mobilities and immobilities that are implied in the process of constructing a mega-event. It seeks to uncover the ways in which an event is a series of fluid interactions that occur sequentially and simultaneously at multiple scales in diverse spheres of interaction. Contributions explore the dynamics through which mega-events occur, revealing the textures and nuance of the complex systems that sustain them, and the ways that events ramify throughout the international system.

The use of sporting and other mega-events to bring about transformation of socially deprived areas of major cities is becoming an increasingly important part of the raison d'être for hosting such events, especially given the immense costs involved and the current economic climate. The tax-paying public increasingly has to be persuaded of the benefits, beyond the event itself, to spend the nation's resources in this way. This edited book, written by international experts, critically explores these multiple facets of the Mega Event legacy looking at the various economic, environmental and social impacts and benefits in multiple continents. It considers topics such as volunteering, participation, economics, sponsorship, ethics and technology in relation to legacy. This timely book provides a further understanding of the legacy discourse, as well as the potential pitfalls connected to legacy in relation to mega events. Filling a gap in the literature on legacy research, Legacies and Mega Events will be of interest to events, sports, tourism, urban development students, researchers and academics.

This analysis explores the social history and politics of mega-events from the late 19th century to the present. Through case studies of events such as the 1851 Crystal Palace Expo, the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Maurice Roche investigates the impact Expos and Olympics have had on national identities, on the marking of public time and space, and on visions of national citizenship and international society in modern times. Historical chapters deal with the production of Expos by power elites, their impacts on mass culture, and the political uses and abuses of international sport and Olympic events. Chapters also deal with the impact of Olympics on cities, the growth of Olympics as media events and the current crisis of the Olympic movement in world politics and culture.

In recent years, major sporting and cultural events such as the Olympic Games have emerged as significant elements of public policy, particularly in efforts to achieve urban regeneration. As well as opportunities arising from new venues, these events are viewed as a way of stimulating investment, gaining civic engagement and publicizing progress to assist the urban regeneration process more generally. However, the pursuit of regeneration involving events is a practice that is poorly understood, controversial and risky. Events and Urban Regeneration is the first book dedicated to the use of events in regeneration. It explores the relationship between events and regeneration by analyzing a range of cities and a range of sporting and cultural events projects. It considers various theoretical perspectives to provide insight into why major events are important to contemporary cites. It examines the different ways that events can assist regeneration, as well as problems and issues associated with this unconventional form of public policy. It identifies key issues faced by those tasked with using events to assist regeneration and suggests how practices could be improved in the future. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary perspective, drawing together ideas from the geography, urban planning and tourism literatures, as well as from the emerging events and regeneration fields. It illustrates arguments with a range of international case studies placed within and at the end of chapters to show positive outcomes that have been achieved and examples of high profile failures. This timely book is essential reading for students and practitioners who are interested in events, urban planning, urban geography and tourism.

* Analyses the process of cultural event development, management and marketing and links these processes to their wider cultural, social and economic context * Provides a unique blend of practical and academic analysis, with a selection of major festivals and cities where ‘the event' has had an important element of development strategy * Examines the reasons why different stakeholders should collaborate, as well as the reasons why partnerships succeed or fail

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage focuses on the importance of memory and heritage for individual and group identity, and for their sense of belonging. It aims to expose the motives and discourses related to the destruction of memory and heritage during times of war, terror, sectarian conflict and through capitalist policies. It is within these affected spheres of cultural heritage where groups and communities ascribe values, develop memories, and shape their collective identity.