The lasting social value of mega events: experiences from green point community in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

A growing area of mega event research focuses on the long-term social value of outcomes and the impact of their far-reaching benefits. This paper questions whether mega events present opportunities for interventions through an exploration of the social value of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the community of Green Point, Cape Town. Drawing on Chalip’s (2006) understanding of the liminal social value of events, the main considerations are whether the outcome of feel-good experiences were leveraged to enable community building in the long-term. Following the narrative inquiry approach, stories were collected from community members. The findings suggest community members from Green Point have a mixed perception of the event’s lasting social value. These perceptions were influenced by the participants’ wide-ranging experiences of the event and subsequent outcomes. The findings have a number of implications for future practice, affirming that the issues and challenges related to leveraging social impacts beyond the existence of a mega event can affect people’s perceptions of the social value attached. Looking to future research, this paper calls for investigations that involve repeated exploration of participant experiences over a longer timeframe, suggesting the value of the longitudinal perspective.