Introduction: Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: what is at stake?

Abstract

This introduction gives an overview of the major issues in the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. It identifies and describes six problematic areas for this USD 50 billion mega-project: grandeur, domestic spectacle, soft power, neopatrimonialism, human rights and civil society.

Keywords:

• Olympic Games
• mega-event
• mega-project
• impacts
• Sochi
• Russia

Notes on contributor

Martin Müller is a human geographer and Swiss National Science Foundation Professor at the University of Zurich. He does research on the planning, organisation and impacts of mega-events, with a specific focus on Russia. His research on Sochi has appeared in European Urban and Regional Studies, Environment and Planning A and Environment and Planning C: Government & Policy. For further information see www.martin-muller.net.