The role of heritagization in managing uncertainties linked to major events and mega urban projects

Does culture have transformative power to make the Olympic Games sustainable?

“…Although this was Garcia’s starting perspective (2004), further research is needed to analyze how Olympic cultural programming interacts with urban planning, place appropriation, and local legacy. Such exploration would benefit from ethnographic and a detailed knowledge of local cultural dynamics, as mapped in the HERITRISK matrix (Doustaly and Zembri-Mary, 2019) and also draw on later frameworks (Jones et al, 2022).…”

“…The only cultural ‘legacies’ other than architecture became a public art trail (Garcia 2014). Conversely tangible and intangible heritagization practices have been found to reduce uncertainty and risks which abound in Olympic mega-urban projects and improve benefits for local communities (Doustaly and Zembri-Mary, 2019). Longer-term cultural policy would have helped meet the promise of stitching the Park to East London and develop place appropriation – notably through participatory planning consultations or cultural programming (Doustaly, forthcoming 1), but it was also the local economic development model which came in contradiction with initial promises and produced today’s border effects, with Stratford in particular.…”

“…To do this involves approaching arts and heritage as a continuum between public policies and cultural practices ranging from heritage to creation, sport, interculturality, and ways of life (Gammon et al, 2014; Girginov and Preuss, 2022). In Athens and London, the Olympic Games have been found to support, in different ways, some creative expressions (architecture, public art, live arts), generate and valorize tangible and intangible cultural and natural heritage, and help revisit narratives on a global, national, and local stage (Doustaly and Zembri-Mary, 2019).…”