https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1869-1906
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ABSTRACT
Strategic planning was incorporated into urban planning processes towards the end of the twentieth century. It was propelled by the ‘Barcelona model’, intrinsically related with the hosting of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Since then, the Olympic Games have been increasingly seen as powerful tools to catalyse development. They are perceived as provoking an Olympic Effect that has been characterized in literature as an intensified impact of development policies when implemented in the context of the event. Furthermore, the catalytic character of the Games and its associated city-branding potential are often seen as the primary reasons why cities bid for hosting it. This paper argues that the definition of Olympic Effect shall be established in strategic planning practices before both the catalytic effect on development projects and the augmented impact in territories and communities. For that, candidatures of cities bidding to host the Games are qualitatively analysed. The results contribute to the recognition of the increased presence of a strategic vision in Olympic candidatures, the characterization of strategic planning in the context of the Olympic Games, the identification of its role in the city’s overall strategic planning processes, and the definition of the Olympic Effect as a resource for urban strategic planning.
Acknowledgements
This work is within the scope of Gustavo Lopes dos Santos’ PhD project ‘Sustainable Urban Development and Mega-Events: The impacts of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in future Olympic Legacies’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 415.
2 Healey, “Collaborative Planning in a Stakeholder Society”.
3 Qu and Spaans, “Mega-event as a Strategy in Spatial Planning”.
4 Gonçalves and Ferreira, “The Planning of Strategy”.
5 Harvey, “From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism”; Monclús, “The Barcelona Model”.
6 Albrechts, “Bridge the Gap”.
7 Gonçalves and Ferreira, “The Planning of Strategy”.
8 Healey, “Treatment of Space and Place,” 46.
9 Lauermann, “‘The City’ as Developmental Justification”; Chalkley and Essex, “Urban Development Through Hosting International Events”.
10 Marshall, “Barcelona – Fast Forward?”.
11 Degen and Garcia, “Transformation of the ‘Barcelona Model’”.
12 IOC, Legacy Strategic Approach.
13 Chappelet, “Olympic Environmental Concerns”.
14 Lopes dos Santos et al., “Olympic Charter Evolution”.
15 Preuss, “Event Legacy Framework and Measurement”.
16 Kassens-Noor, “From Ephemeral Planning to Permanent Urbanism”.
17 See, for example, Pereira, “Transport Legacy of Mega-events”; Alm et al., “Hosting Major Sports Events”; Kaplanidou, “Importance of Legacy Outcomes”.
18 Smith, “Leveraging Sport Mega-events”.
19 Coaffee, “Urban Regeneration and Renewal”.
20 Müller, “Mega-Event Syndrome”.
21 Brajer and Mead, “Blue Skies in Beijing”.
22 Zhang and Zhao, “City branding”; Gries, Crowson, and Sandel, “Olympic Effect”; Rose and Spiegel, “The Olympic Effect”; Bayar, “Treatment of Endogenous Monadic Variables”; Papanikos, “Real Exchange Rate”; Edwards, “The Olympic Effect”; Kokolakakis, Lera-López, and Ramchandani, “Did London 2012 Deliver a Sports Participation Legacy?”.
23 Ma and Takeuchi, “Cleaning up the Air”; Wang and Bao, “Mega-event Effects on the Housing Market”; Bernstock, “Evaluating the Contribution of Planning Gain”.
24 Raevskikh, “Anticipating the ‘Bilbao Effect’”.
25 Patterson, “Revitalization, Transformation and the ‘Bilbao Effect’”, 3.
26 Ibid.; González, “Bilbao and Barcelona”.
27 Lauermann, “‘The City’ as Developmental Justification”, 82.
28 Olympic Studies Centre, “Candidature Process Evolution”.
29 https://library.olympic.org/default/candidatures.aspx?_lg=en-GB, accessed March 18, 2021.
30 https://docplayer.net/17794141-Stage-1-vision-games-concept-and-strategy-candidature-file-stage-1-budapest-2024-olympic-and-paralympic-games.html; http://live.fandomlab.com.s3.amazonaws.com/roma2024/asset/Rome_2024_NAV.pdf accessed March 18, 2021.
31 Although not always correct, the authors suggest that, to ease the paper’s comprehension, readers bear in mind the fact that a candidature file was produced/submitted eight years before the respective Games’ edition.
32 Stemler, “Overview of Content Analysis”.
33 Schwartz et al., “Choosing the Right Words”.
34 Burchfield, “Frequency Analysis,” 64.
35 Braun and Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis,” 82.
36 Braun and Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis”.
37 Stemler, “Overview of Content Analysis”.
38 Burchfield, “Frequency Analysis,” 65.
39 BBC, “London Beats Paris to 2012 Games”; IOC, “Games of the XXX Olympiad”, 90.
40 Essex and Chalkley, “Mega-sporting Events”.
41 Lopes dos Santos et al., “Olympic Agenda 2020”.
42 Chappelet, “Olympic Environmental Concerns”.
43 Rio de Janeiro 2016, vol. 1, 19.
44 Istanbul 2020, vol. 1, 19.
45 Stockholm-Åre 2026, 14.
46 Madrid 2016, vol. 1, 17.
47 Salzburg 2014, vol. 1, 20.
48 London 2012, vol. 1, 19.
49 PyeongChang 2014, vol. 1, 21.
50 Milan-Cortina 2026, 27.
51 Tokyo 2020, vol. 1, 4.
52 Translated from Budapest, “Budapest 2030,” 68.
53 Translated from Comune di Milano, “Milano 2030,” 15.
54 Translated from Conseil regional d’Île-de-France, “Île-de-France 2030,” vol. 2, 140.
55 Translated from Budapest, “Budapest 2030,” 77.
56 Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Development, “2023 Master plan for Turkey,” 48.
57 Tokyo Metropolitan Government, “Creating the Future,” 1.
58 Hersperger et al., “Understanding Strategic Spatial Planning”.
59 Lauermann, “‘The City’ as Developmental Justification”.
60 Translated from Observatorio Económico, “Futuro Ciudad Madrid 2020,” 300.
61 Rome 2024, vol. 1, 17.
62 Mayor of London, “The London Plan,” 138.
63 Definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com, accessed March 27, 2021.
64 Sternberg, “What Makes Buildings Catalytic?”.
65 Müller, “Mega-Event Syndrome”.
66 Annecy 2018, vol. 1, 17.
67 Rome 2024, vol. 1, 1.
68 Chicago 2016, vol. 1, 17.
69 Milan-Cortina, 4.
70 Budapest 2024, vol. 1, 2.
71 Tokyo 2020, vol. 1, 4.
72 Rio de Janeiro 2016, vol. 1, 19.
73 Bovy, “No Transport White Elephants,” 17.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
G. Lopes dos Santos
Gustavo Lopes dos Santos has been a Territorial Engineering PhD student at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon since 2019. He holds an MSc in Civil Engineering, in the field of Urbanism, Transport and Systems from the same institution (2015). His scientific interests comprise the study of the dynamic interrelationship between the city and (mega) events, and specifically, their planning, delivery, and permanent and temporary effects in territories and communities. His PhD, which studies the Olympic Games, is titled “Sustainable Urban Development and Mega-Events: The impacts of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in future Olympic Legacies”.
J. Gonçalves
J. Gonçalves holds a PhD in Geography and Territorial Planning from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He is Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, and is also the coordinator of the Masters in Urban Studies and Spatial Planning there. He lectures on several Masters degrees related to architecture and urban planning and also on the PhD course in Territory Engineering. He teaches subjects mainly related to Geography, Strategic Planning, Housing, Social Challenges and Urban and Regional Development.