Abstract
This article is based on field research in two South African host cities of the Men’s Football World Cup 2010 (eThekwini and Johannesburg). The discussed work is part of the research project “Festivalisation” of Urban Governance: The Production of Socio-Spatial Control in the Context of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. In the context of mega-events, impacts and changes on urban development can vary on a spectrum of festivalisation between opposing poles, either “driven by the event”, or on the other hand where existing configurations of actors and established policies are “driving the event”. By drawing on a theoretical framework which is inspired by an analytical understanding of urban governance, our assumptions are that (a) different configurations of governance promote different ways of handling the challenges associated to the hosting and (b) that different types of “festivalisation” have different consequences and effects for the lived realities of the residents at a local level. The latter is an arena in which urban governance policies are translated, adapted, renegotiated or rejected. We argue that the bringing together of both spheres (local and metropolitan) provides a profound understanding of the process of mega-event implementation and its relation to urban social sustainability.
Highlights
The relation between mega-events and urban development has been discussed for the past twenty years with an increasing awareness of the implications for urban policies
In relation to the overall theme of this special issue, we argue in our paper that the effects of mega-event hosting on urban development have to be understood in the light of respective strengths and weaknesses of the specific types of urban governance in any given host city
A multiplicity of actors and institutions is woven into a manifold setting of urban governance and embedded into area-based development strategies to make use of events for urban development. It has become a common feature of the aftermath of mega-events that different actors present a variety of reports about the sustainable effects of the specific event [85] which applies for the Football World Cup in South Africa [10,86,87,88,89,90]
Summary
The relation between mega-events and urban development has been discussed for the past twenty years with an increasing awareness of the implications for urban policies. The concept of governance may not be a consistent theory in itself but serves as a framework to facilitate the identification of key actor configurations and further enables us to focus on local-specific settings without losing sight of the national and global sphere alike Translating this into the debate on urban social sustainability asks for shifting perspectives of evaluation: Social sustainability cannot be measured or assessed by itself, but within the existing framework of urban governance. Qualifier of existing policies and governance structures within the inquiry on socio-spatial exclusion in the city It should not be understood as a precisely defined normative goal that is formulated in an abstract way before analyzing the metropolitan structures in their relation to the development of society (cf only [16]). In relation to the overall theme of this special issue, we argue in our paper that the effects of mega-event hosting on urban development have to be understood in the light of respective strengths and weaknesses of the specific types of urban governance in any given host city
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