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London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City

A Hollow Legacy?

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  • © 2017
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Overview

Editors:
  1. Phil Cohen

    1. Centre for East London Studies, University of East London, London, E 16, United Kingdom

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  2. Paul Watt

    1. Geography, Environment and Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

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  • Provides critical analysis of the successes and failures of the London 2012 Olympics
  • Compares how the 2012 Olympic Games differ from previous and planned Olympic mega-events in similar host cities
  • Questions how mega-events spark urban regeneration and assesses what this means for local people

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Introduction: A Hollow Crown – Understanding the Olympics in Prospect and Retrospect

    • Phil Cohen, Paul Watt
    Pages 1-24
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  3. London 2012: The Mega-Event in Context

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25
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    2. East London’s Post-Olympic Economy

      • Gavin Poynter
      Pages 27-51
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    3. Hollow Sovereignty and the Hollow Crown? Contested Governance and the Olympic Security Edifice

      • Pete Fussey, Jon Coaffee
      Pages 53-87
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  4. The 2012 Legacy Story: Views from East London

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89
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    2. Legacy for Whom? Housing in Post-Olympic East London

      • Paul Watt, Penny Bernstock
      Pages 91-138
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    3. A Place Beyond Belief: Hysterical Materialism and the Making of East 20

      • Phil Cohen
      Pages 139-177
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    4. ‘The Best New Place to Live’? Visual Research with Residents in East Village and E20

      • Debbie Humphry
      Pages 179-204
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    5. Expert Knowledge and Community Participation in Urban Planning: the Case of Post-Olympic Hackney Wick

      • Isaac Marrero-Guillamón
      Pages 205-231
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    6. Contesting Community on London 2012’s Olympic Fringe

      • Francesca Weber-Newth
      Pages 233-258
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    7. West Ham United in the Olympic Stadium: A Gramscian Analysis of the Rocky Road to Stratford

      • Jack Fawbert
      Pages 259-286
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    8. Youth Transitions and Legacies in an East London Olympic Host Borough

      • Anthony Gunter
      Pages 287-309
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  6. From London 2012 to Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 383-383
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    2. The Rio Dossier: The Exclusion Games

      • Phil Cohen, Paul Watt
      Pages 385-405
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    3. From London 2012 to Tokyo 2020: Urban Spectacle, Nation Branding and Socio-Spatial Targeting in the Olympic City

      • Grace Gonzalez Basurto
      Pages 407-443
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Keywords

About this book

This book brings together a body of new research which looks both backwards and forwards to consider how far the London 2012 Olympic legacy has been delivered and how far it has been a hollow promise. Cohen and Watt consider the lessons that can be learnt from the London experience and aptly apply them other host cities, specifically Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. The Olympics are often described as a ‘mega-event’ in a way that assumes the host cities have no other existence outside, before or beyond the contexts imposed by the Games themselves. In terms of regeneration, the London 2012 Olympics promised to trigger a mega-regeneration project that was different to what had come before. This time the mistakes of other large-scale projects like London Docklands and Canary Wharf would be put right: top-down planning would be replaced by civic participation, communication and ‘the local’. This edited collection questions how far the 2012 London legacy really is different. In so doing, it bringsfresh evidence, original insights and new perspectives to bear on the post-Olympics debate. A detailed and well-researched study, this book will be of great interest to scholars of urban geography, sociology, urban planning, and sports studies. 

Reviews

“London 2012 is full of important information and critical analysis with plenty of ideas for future work. Its bibliographies will be indispensable for students and researchers. The book will be of great value to planners, sociologists, urban geographers and all with a deep concern for London and for ‘Post-Olympic Studies’.” (Hugh Clout, Cercles, cercles.com, 2017) “This book is essential reading for those who wish to understand the true legacies of the London Olympics 2012 for the people and places of East London.  It is one of the first books to put the Olympic developments into a proper historical and comparative context.  Its powerful contributions to empirical and conceptual debates on urban development could not be more timely, in a world in which the messages of globalism and diversity that characterised the London Games seem to be under attack as never before.” (Mike Raco, Professor of Urban Governance and Regeneration, University College London)                                                                                                                                                                                    

“London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City makes a vital contribution to scholarship on the impacts of the Olympics on host cities, but with a twist: its focus on the years following the Olympics is unique and much needed. …Through careful empirical and visual documentation of Olympic promises and post-Games realities -- ranging from housing to employment to security to health – the collection paints a graphic portrait of East London in the years following the 2012 Summer Games. The picture is not a pretty one; importantly, it flies in the face of both official post-Games reports and self-congratulatory media declarations. This is why this particular set of counter-stories is so essential: to debunk the myth of an Olympics that was of benefit to all. Cohen and Watt … have also traced the borders for a new disciplinary domain of Post-Olympic Urban Studies that I predict will explode in the years to come.” (Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly, Carleton University, author of Olympic Exclusions: Youth, Poverty and Social Legacies)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Centre for East London Studies, University of East London, London, E 16, United Kingdom

    Phil Cohen

  • Geography, Environment and Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Watt

About the editors

Phil Cohen is Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London and Emeritus Professor in Cultural Studies at the University of East London, and co-founder of the Living Maps network.


Paul Watt is Reader in Urban Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. He co-wrote Understanding Social Inequality (Sage, 2007) with Tim Butler, and co-edited Mobilities and Neighbourhood Belonging in Cities and Suburbs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) with Peer Smets. 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City

  • Book Subtitle: A Hollow Legacy?

  • Editors: Phil Cohen, Paul Watt

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48947-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-48946-3Published: 27 September 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-69619-2Published: 04 November 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-48947-0Published: 20 September 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 460

  • Number of Illustrations: 55 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Human Geography, Sport, Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns), Area Studies

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