Planning displacement: the real legacy of major sporting events
Sporting and cultural events often promote major celebrations, spectacular shows and up beat media coverage. In general negative news or information generally remains unreported or hidden. However, these massive sporting and cultural events do have deeply marginalising effects, Libby Porter states. In her opinion, displacement has become a defining feature of mega events. Shocked by the relative indifference towards the effects of displacement that policymakers and practitioners show, she decided to write the paper 'Planning displacement: the real legacy of major sporting events.' This paper provides a more critical understanding of displacement by bringing together real stories from people who are directly experiencing its effects.
Description
The stories Libby Porter collected for her paper derive from people experiencing displacement as a result of sporting events in Glasgow, London and Vancouver. By providing descriptions of what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the event planning process, she intends to widen the critical understanding of the subject. Porter explains that people who are negatively affected by event-related urban development often feel like non-citizens.Because of the fact that their homes and neighbourhoods are viewed as intstrumental by policy makers and professionals, they tend to feel invisible.
Background information
The article 'Planning displacement: the real legacy of major sporting events 'by Libby Porter was published in Planning Theory & Practice, Vol. 10, No. 3,pp. 395-418 in September 2009. The online version was published in December2010.
Conclusions
A 2007 study of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evicitions (COHRE) already found that the number of people displaced by major events runs into the millions. In addition, Libby Porter states that there is little evidence to support the evidence of a lasting positive legacy from urban development associated with major sporting events. She encourages all professionals involved in major sporting events to consider this and continue the debate about this matter.
Contact info
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Publication date
9/2009
Researcher
Porter, L., Jaconelli, M., Cheyne, J., Eby, D. & Wagenaar, H.
Document type
research
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Reference material
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Paper | Planning displacement: the real legacy of major sporting events
24 Feb 2010, pdf, 325KB