Olympic Cities

Description

Olympic Cities provides the first full overview of the changing relationship between cities and the Olympic events since 1896. With eighteen specially commissioned and original essays written by a team of distinguished international authors, it explores the historical experience of staging the Olympics from the point of view of the host city.

A thought-provoking analysis of the relationship between Olympic festivals and urban spectacle it:

• provides overviews of the urban impact of the four component Olympic festivals – the Summer Games, Winter Games, Cultural Olympiads and the Paralympics
• comprises systematic surveys of four key aspects of activity involved in staging the Olympics – finance, place promotion, managing spectacle and urban regeneration
• consists of nine chronologically arranged portraits of host cities, from 1936 to 2012, with particular emphasis on the first four Summer Olympic games of the twenty-first century.

As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics continues unabated, this book’s incisive and timely assessment of the Games’ development and the complex agendas that host cities attach to the event will be essential reading not only for urban and sports historians, urban geographers, planners and all concerned with understanding the relationship between cities and culture, but for anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events.

Reviews

'Accessible for undergraduates with historical and contemporary material that is useful across disciplines.' – Lecturer, Liverpool Hope University

Contents

1. Introduction Part 1: The Olympic Festivals 2. Athens to Athens: The Summer Olympics, 1896–2004 3. The Winter Olympics: Driving Urban Change, 1924–2002 4. The Cultural Olympiads: Reviving the Panegyris 5. The Rise of the Paralympics Part 2: Planning and Management 6. Financing the Games 7. Promoting the Olympic City 8. Accommodating the Spectacle 9. Urban Regeneration and Renewal Part 3: City Portraits 10. Berlin 1936 11. Mexico City 1968 12. Montreal 1976 13. Barcelona 1992 14. Sydney 2000 15. Athens 2004 16. Beijing 2008 17. London 2012 18. Afterword

Author Bio

John R. Gold is Professor of Urban Geography and a member of the Institute for Historical and Cultural Research at Oxford Brookes University.

Margaret M. Gold is Senior Lecturer in Arts and Heritage Management and a member of the International Institute for Culture, Tourism and Development at London Metropolitan University.

Related Subjects

1. Planning History
2. Olympics
3. Urban Geography
4. Architecture
5. Planning