Article

The Regeneration Games: Commodities, Gifts and the Economics of London 2012*

Details

Citation

Macrury I & Poynter G (2008) The Regeneration Games: Commodities, Gifts and the Economics of London 2012*. International Journal of the History of Sport, 25 (14), pp. 2072-2090. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523360802439254

Abstract
This paper considers contradictions between two concurrent and tacit conceptions of the Olympic ‘legacy’, setting out one conception that understands the games and their legacies as gifts alongside and as counterpoint to the prevailing discourse, which conceives Olympic assets as commodities. The paper critically examines press and governmental discussion of legacy, in order to locate these in the context of a wider perspective contrasting ‘gift’ and ‘commodity’ Olympics – setting anthropological conceptions of gift-based sociality as a necessary supplement to contractual and dis-embedded socio-economic organizational assumptions underpinning the commodity Olympics. Cost-benefit planning is central to modern city building and mega-event delivery. The paper considers the insufficiency of this approach as the exclusive paradigm within which to frame and manage a dynamic socio-economic and cultural legacy arising from the 2012 games.

Journal
International Journal of the History of Sport: Volume 25, Issue 14

StatusPublished
Publication date31/12/2008
Publication date online11/11/2008
Date accepted by journal11/11/2008
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/33350
ISSN0952-3367
eISSN1743-9035

People (1)

People

Professor Iain MacRury

Professor Iain MacRury

Professor in Comms., Media and Culture, Communications, Media and Culture