Call for papers

Proposals for papers and presentations are invited for the fourth annual University of Greenwich conference on the theme of the Olympic Games. The topic of this year’s conference is: “Games and the City: Impacts and Legacies in the Urban Landscape”.

As cities compete for jobs and capital in the context of decreasing government aid and increasing global economic competition, a new and potentially risky strategy for economic growth has emerged: the quest for high-profile events to serve as a stimulus to, and justification for, local, regional and national development. Concurrently, mega-events can also be used for political purposes or to promote social objectives.

Understanding the genuine impacts of cities’ bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games means engaging in an ongoing debate over their meaning, perspective and interpretation, in which claims and counter-claims must be critically and rigorously evaluated. The conference aims to advance this debate by bringing together academics and practitioners to explore key questions such as:

• What lessons can be learnt from the ways in which reality has matched expectations in previous Olympic cities, regarding the costs and benefits of hosting this mega-event?

• According to which criteria should the impacts of the Olympic Games be evaluated, and what are the most appropriate methodologies of assessment?

• How does hosting the Games transform the urban landscape, both physically and socially?

• What are the similarities and differences in the legacy and impact ambitions of developing cities compared to developed ones?

Deadline for proposals: 01 April 2011

Format of proposal: We invite potential speakers to submit an abstract (approximately
200-350 words) of their presentation which should indicate the
background, practical implications and applications, methods and/or
data sources and indicative findings of the paper.

Please send proposals to: Peter Vlachos
Email: p.vlachos@gre.ac.uk

The conference will be held at the University of Greenwich’s historic campus on a World Heritage Site on the banks of the River Thames and in close proximity to key 2012 Olympic Games sites such as Stratford, ExCeL, the O2 Arena, Woolwich and Greenwich Park itself.

The Games and the City Conference 2011 is presented by the London Centre for Events Management in association with the Urban Renaissance Institute, both based at the University of Greenwich, London, UK

 www.greenwich.ac.uk

Alessandro ‘Chito’ Guala – “Monitoring public opinion: A serendipity effect of the Torino Winter Olympic Games 2006″

Piervincezo Bondinio & Alfredo Mela – “Which legacies of Torino 2006 for the Olympic movement and local society?”

Pedro Moeira – “A mega event inside the great wall of China: Expectations and possible impacts of the Beijing 2008 games”

Peter Vlachos – “The Big Owe: Politics and financial management in the 1976 Montreal games”