This book provides theoretical and empirical perspectives on the urban impact of mega-events globally. It takes mega-events as an instance to analyse urban transformations and their effects on citizenship. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, the book presents innovative and multidimensional analyses of mega-events with an international selection of case studies. The work provides a grounded theorisation of mega-events in the first part and scrutinizes its practices and processes in the second. Each chapter explores mega-events as crucial drivers and accelerators of urban and citizenship transformations. Rather than just focusing on a staged momentum, this book takes stock of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ that these events imply for the urban condition. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in urban studies, human geography, economics, architecture, planning, sociology, political science. It will also appeal to professionals and policy makers engaged in the planning, hosting and management of mega-events.

This edited volume offers a critical reflection on the failed experiment to redevelop the city of Rio de Janeiro according to the neoliberal strategy of entrepreneurial urban governance and mercantile regulatory transformations, which were leveraged by mega-sporting events. The case of Rio de Janeiro is presented as an example of a failing global strategy for urban redevelopment, entrepreneurial urban governance and the realization of mega-events. This book aims to present the real and critical state of the legacies of such mega-events. It shows how instead of the promised economic redemption, Rio is experiencing a severe economic, political and social crisis, handling three observation perspectives: the first is the description of urban transformations and mega events, assessing the contradictions in the model for the intended urban development and taking into account historical factors both at local and national level; the second restricts on neighborhoods as case studies representing an ensign of a neoliberal urban transformation’ results; the third links city and citizenship focusing tensions and inconsistencies and opening up a perspective on the importance of fostering the concept of citizenship, including actions, movements and initiatives that express the resistance and struggles around a possible new destination for Rio de Janeiro. Prof. Luiz Cesar de Quieroz Ribeiro and Dr. Filippo Bignami as General Editors thank Ana Paula Soares Carvalho, Humberto Meza, Niccoló Cuppini and Orlando dos Santos Junior for their contributions as co-editors of this book.

Mega events are accelerators of urban transformation with lasting effects on urban environments. In the spotlight of the spectacle these crucial factors are often ignored, deliberately underestimated or underreported. They pertain every aspect of urban living, making mega-events more than instances of ambitious overspending, but ruptures in the established modes of urban production amplifying social and political inequalities. In this volume, authors with different perspectives and from different geographies and disciplines are gathered to create a unique reflection on mega-events at the intersection of culture, sports, planning and politics. Starting from the case of Tokyo 2020, the contributors bring about planetary trajectories of urban transformation today from both a theoretical and empirical perspective.

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

This book explores the changing approaches to urban common good in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. The question of common good is fundamental to urban living; however, understanding of the term varies depending on local contexts and conditions, particularly complex in countries with experience of communism. In cities east of the former Iron Curtain, the once ideologically imposed principle of common good became gradually devalued throughout the 20th century due to the lack of citizen agency, only to reappear as a response to the ills of neoliberal capitalism around the 2010s. The book reveals how the idea of urban common good has been reconstructed and practiced in European cities after socialism. It documents the paradigm shift from city as a communal infrastructure to city as a commodity, which lately has been challenged by the approach to city as a commons. These transformations have been traced and analysed within several urban themes: housing, public transport, green infrastructure, public space, urban regeneration, and spatial justice. A special focus is on the changes in the public discourse in Poland and the perspectives of key urban stakeholders in three case-study cities of Gdańsk, Kraków, and Łódź. The findings point to the need for drawing from best practices of the socialist legacy, with its celebration of the common. At the same time, they call for learning from the mistakes of the recent past, in which the opportunity for citizen empowerment has been unseized. The book is intended for researchers, academics, and postgraduates, as well as practitioners and anyone interested in rediscovering the inherent potential of urban commonality. It will appeal to those working in human geography, spatial planning, and other areas of urban studies.

Featuring up-to-date and insightful analyses and comparative case studies from a plethora of countries, this timely book explores ‘ideal’ socialist cities and their transformation under new socio-economic and political conditions after the fall of communism. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this book prioritises objective scientific knowledge and presents expert rethinking of the historical experience of urban planning in the former socialist countries of Eurasia. It draws on carefully selected examples of iconic cities of socialist modernism, from the post-Soviet space, Central Europe, and the Balkans. The book explores the ongoing transformation of these cities: from uniformed urban environment to chaotic post-modernist planning, from industrialisation to touristification, from deideologisation to making new and still highly contested heritage. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in urban studies, human geography, sociology, social anthropology, spatial planning, and architectural practice.