{"id":3444,"date":"2012-08-07T15:17:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T20:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:28:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:28:53","slug":"do-host-cities-get-an-economic-olympic-bounce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/do-host-cities-get-an-economic-olympic-bounce\/","title":{"rendered":"Do host cities get an economic “Olympic Bounce”?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
London’s East End got a major makeover for the Olympics, but UWM’s George Papakis is asking whether the enormous investment will result in a lasting economic boost.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What happens to the East End of London when the stadium lights go off and the crowds return home after the London Olympics? Will Britain\u2019s hopes for revitalizing the area be realized?<\/p>\n

Those and other issues associated with hosting the Olympic Games are the topic of a fall University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee course in the Urban Studies Program. George Papakis, an instructor and doctoral candidate in the department, will teach Urban Studies 360, Perspectives on the Urban Scene, Atlanta, Beijing, London: Olympic Cities and Urban Development.<\/p>\n

The class will investigate the Olympic Games as a complex urban phenomenon with implications for understanding the modern metropolis.<\/p>\n

The Olympics have always been associated with cities, says Papakis, but it\u2019s only in modern times that they\u2019ve been used as an urban transformation tool. As the Olympics moved from a simple athletic competition in a single stadium to a gigantic spectacle, he adds, cities began seizing their moments on the world stage to jump-start the economy and revitalize urban areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the 1936 Games in Berlin, it became obvious that the Olympics could be much more than a simple athletic competition,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was the Rome Olympics in 1960 that signaled the passage to large-scale interventions, so characteristic of today\u2019s Games. Since then, the Olympics started to become increasingly grandiose, requiring much higher investments, and leaving a much larger footprint on the urban environment of host cities. Nowadays, the investment of capital and effort is massive. It is estimated that for hosting the 2008 Games, Beijing spent over $40 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

A personal interest<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The case of post-Olympics Athens is not encouraging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His interest in teaching a course on the topic of \u201cOlympic Urbanism\u201d grew out of personal experience in his Greek homeland. He is working on his dissertation on the privatization of public space in Athens, using the former international airport of the city as a case study.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the preparation period for the 2004 Games [in Athens] I became really concerned with the magnitude and scope of urban interventions that obviously did not address the chronic problems of a city,\u201d he says. \u201cInitially, the whole endeavor was presented by the government as a reason for national pride and a sign of a dynamic economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the country experienced a brief psychological boost as a small country hosting a major world event, the impact did not last.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, many of the Olympic venues lay abandoned, in a state of disrepair, as the economy of the city crumbles,\u201d says Papakis. That personal experience has combined with his academic interest in urban development in his research. In 2011, he won the Urban Studies Program\u2019s Scott Greer Award for Outstanding Research for his paper, \u201cThe Sobering Realities of the 2004 Olympics: Fiscal Crisis and the Privatization of Land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether cities have been successful as a result of hosting the Olympics depends on how success is defined and who\u2019s defining it, says Papakis. The Greek government declared the 2004 Games a success because major problems were avoided, but in retrospect many in Greece feel the Olympics were a disaster, according to Papakis. The Montreal Olympics of 1976 were a financial disaster, with the province finally paying off debt for the event in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand,\u201d says Papakis, \u201cthe 1992 Games in Barcelona are hailed as the epitome of a successful mega-event because they managed to regenerate the city\u2019s economy and redefine its identity.\u201d However, he adds, \u201cthere are those who claim that the development model introduced with the Olympics \u2013 overreliance on tourism, speculative real estate markets, etc. \u2013 is partly responsible for the current economic woes in cities like Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the question of the London Olympics\u2019 legacy on the city remains to be seen, says Papakis. Will the massive investment address underlying causes of Britain\u2019s 2011 urban riots? \u201cIt is interesting, though, that the last Olympics hosted by London in 1948 were called \u2018the austerity games,\u2019\u201d says Papakis, \u201cand today London again hosts the Games amidst a persistent global economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre the people of London going to benefit from such an investment in such challenging times? We do not know yet; the jury is still out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The class will investigate the Olympic Games as a complex urban phenomenon with implications for understanding the modern metropolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[207],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-3444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","related-coverage-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\nDo host cities get an economic "Olympic Bounce"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The class will investigate the Olympic Games as a complex urban phenomenon with implications for understanding the modern metropolis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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