Abstract
The local and regional administrations of Valencia, Spain, have been working to position the city, which is the country′s third largest in terms of population, as an international destination for luxury tourism through sports mega‐events. Valencia′s new image as a “mega‐events city” has been criticized by citizens and urban‐based movements on social and environmental grounds, resulting in various urban conflicts. The aim of this paper is to examine the causes and dynamics of these conflicts in order to understand the discourse and rationales behind the criticism. This will also include an examination of the ways in which these conflicts were managed by the local administration, especially in the months leading up to and during the events, when the city was receiving worldwide media coverage. Researching local print media, we focused on urban conflicts that took place in Valencia between 1995 and 2010. We also looked at the performance of urban‐based movements and the administration as conflicting actors. One of the main findings was the strong consensual authoritarianism manifested by the administration and mega‐event organizers when making decisions and managing urban conflicts related to mega‐events.
Highlights
Mega-events are critical instruments of economic development and modernization and serve as opportunities to reengineer a city’s image
The paper argues that this new mega-events trend in Valencia constitutes, beyond the attempt to create a “fashion city” to attract tourism and investments, a tool used by the established leaders of Valencia society to consolidate their power over the masses
We show how these sports megaevents were used as a catalyst for the initiation, expansion, and intensification of the reurbanization process of the bluecollar neighborhoods in the Poblats Marıtims district and how this reurbanization has led to gentrification processes in one of the most valuable areas of the city: the Valencia waterfront
Summary
Mega-events are critical instruments of economic development and modernization and serve as opportunities to reengineer a city’s image. Environmental problems, the privatization of public spaces during the events, increases in rents and housing, and evictions were some of the complaints expressed by citizens involved in protests They strongly criticized these sports mega-events for having completely changed the urban landscape and social composition of certain areas of the city within a short period of time. The paper argues that this new mega-events trend in Valencia constitutes, beyond the attempt to create a “fashion city” to attract tourism and investments, a tool used by the established leaders of Valencia society to consolidate their power over the masses We show how these sports megaevents were used as a catalyst for the initiation, expansion, and intensification of the reurbanization process of the bluecollar neighborhoods in the Poblats Marıtims district and how this reurbanization has led to gentrification processes in one of the most valuable areas of the city: the Valencia waterfront. We discuss how the conflicts resulting from these reurbanization and gentrification processes were managed with an authoritarianism that exploited the “state of exception” mentality to serve its own interests
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