Global localities: Olympic bidding as a case study in globalization

Abstract

This article explores economic, cultural and political facets of ‘globalization’ through an analysis of the Olympic host city selection process. Rhetorical and statistical evidence illustrates that the Olympic bid process has become increasingly about demonstrating that one may be understood as a competitive global city. At the same time, the International Olympic Committee's ultimate decision also accounts for which city is the most locally distinctive. Furthermore, position and connectivity within global networks have ‘political’ ramifications that impact host selection. Ultimately, playing with the world's elite requires homogeneity in structural competency and networking potential across space, and simultaneous demonstration of maximal local qualitative difference. Consideration of Chicago's unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Games supports these conclusions. This empirical case study in glocalization reveals the logic behind Olympic host outcomes while demonstrating how place and difference remain crucial to today's ‘global’.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the organizers of The Olympic Games: Meeting New Global Challenges conference for the opportunity to discuss these ideas. This article draws upon the author's thesis work in the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) at the University of Chicago. She gratefully acknowledges Drs John MacAloon and Barnaby Riedel for their feedback and support.

Notes

^1.Kearney, ‘Local and the Global’, 548.

^2.Robertson, ‘Glocalization’, 40.

^3.MacAloon, ‘Scandal and Governance’ and Roche, ‘Olympics and Global Citizenship’, 172 and 177.

^4. Robertson, ‘Glocalization’, 40.

^5. See especially Robertson, Globalization; and Robertson, ‘Glocalization’; Robertson, ‘The Conceptual Promise of Glocalization’.

^6.Sassen, The Global City, 6.

^7. Robertson, ‘Glocalization’, 32.

^8. Robertson, ‘Glocalization’, 33–4.

^9. Sassen, The Global City, 4. Others have sometimes used the term ‘world city,’ ‘mega-city,’ or ‘alpha city’ to reference the same concept (Beaverstock, Taylor, and Smith, ‘A Roster of World Cities’).

^10. Sassen, The Global City, 5.

^11.Beaverstock et al., ‘Attending to the World’, 114.

^12.Hales, King, and Pena, Urban Elite, 1.

^13.Yeoh, ‘Global/Globalizing Cities’, 608.

^14. Sassen acknowledges many of the inconsistencies of the global city, some of which I reference later in this essay.

^15.Nauright, ‘Global Games’, 1330.

^16.International Olympic Committee, Olympic Charter, 71 (emphasis added).

^17.Liao and Pitts, ‘Brief Historical Review’, 1232.

^18.Kim, ‘Seoul’, 67.

^19. Liao and Pitts, ‘A Brief Historical Review’, 1243.

^20.The Opening Ceremonies of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Television broadcast, NBC.

^21.Short, ‘Globalization, Cities, and the Summer Olympics’, 334.

^22.International Olympic Committee, 2016 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire, 10.

^23. See especially Shaw, Five Ring Circus. London 2012 also saw Counter Olympics activity, with an online presence maintained at http://counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com/ (last visited March 21, 2013).

^24. My full-length thesis project drew upon ethnographic interviews with members of the No Games Chicago group. They maintain an online presence at http://nogames.wordpress.com/ (last visited March 21, 2013).

^25. Sassen, The Global City, xxi, 323–5.

^26. International Olympic Committee, 2016 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire, 234.

^27. e.g. Hales, King, and Pena, Urban Elite.

^28. MacAloon, ‘Scandal and Governance’, 304. For additional discussion, see also MacAloon, ‘Legacy as Managerial/Discourse’.

^29.Tomlinson, ‘Commercialisation of the Olympics’, 187.

^30. Short, ‘Globalization, Cities, and the Summer Olympics’, 337.

^31. ‘The World According to GaWC’, GaWC.

^32. Hales, King, and Pena, Urban Elite, 2.

^33. 1992 serves as the historical limit for this analysis due to the time constraints detailed in the text. For example, 1988 host Seoul would have such a dramatically different score in 1981 (the year of its selection) than 2000 – nevertheless the 2008 or 2010 of many data-sets – as to render any analysis virtually meaningless.

^34. Due to space constraints, only bid/applicant cities since the 2004 cohort and the noted data-sets are included in this table. All applicants since 1992, along with 2000 GaWC data 2000 and 2008 A.T. Kearney data, are factored into the analysis. Full tables and data available upon request.

^35. Due to space constraints, only GaWC OCM data are printed in Tables 2 and 3 here. The trends described in the text were similar in direction and magnitude for all other considered data-sets. Full tables available upon request.

^36.Xing et al., ‘Olympic Games Host and Bid City Marketing’, 324.

^37. See especially Poast, ‘Winning the Bid’ and Haugen, ‘Time and Space in Beijing's Olympic Bid’.

^38.Kelly, ‘Asia Pride, China Fear, Tokyo Anxiety’, 2437.

^39. Haugen, ‘Time and Space in Beijing's Olympic Bid’, 217.

^40.MacAloon, This Great Symbol.

^41. International Olympic Committee, Olympic Charter and Chappelet and Kübler-Mabbott, International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System.

^42. Robertson, ‘Conceptual Promise of Glocalization’ (his emphasis).

^43. BBC Sport. ‘Rio to stage 2016 Games’, BBCSport, October 2, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/ sport2/hi/olympic_games/8282518.stm.

^44.Mitten and Schmidt, Making Big Plans, film.

^45. Bill Scherr (Chicago 2016 board member), interview with the author, Chicago, April 4, 2011. This and all subsequent quotations are taken from this interview. Quotes have been cleaned and spliced for readability but content has not been altered. Many thanks to Bill Scherr for informing this project.

^46. Haugen, ‘Time and Space in Beijing's Olympic Bid’, 223 (her emphasis).

^47. MacAloon, ‘Scandal and Governance’, 302.

^48. International Olympic Committee, Olympic Charter, 11.

^49. See Xing et al., ‘Olympic Games Host and Bid City Marketing’, 325.

^50.Chicago2016 (Olympic candidature file).

^51. MacAloon, ‘Scandal and Governance’, 306.

^52. BBC Sport. ‘Rio to stage 2016 Games’, BBCSport, October 2, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/ sport2/hi/olympic_games/8282518.stm. These factors were also discussed in conversations with Scherr and MacAloon in 2011.

^53. Mitten and Schmidt, Making Big Plans, film.

^54. Nauright, ‘Global Games’, 1334.

^55. MacAloon, ‘Scandal and Governance’.

^56. Haugen, ‘Time and Space in Beijing's Olympic Bid’, 218 (quoting Saïd, Orientalism, 55).

^57. Xing et al., ‘Olympic Games Host and Bid City Marketing’, 326.

^58.Istanbul2020, vol. 1, 2 (pdf numbering; Olympic candidature file).

^59.Tokyo2020, vol. 1, 4 (pdf numbering; Olympic candidature file).

^60.Madrid2020, vol. 1, 5 (Olympic candidature file).