The Hard Edge of Soft Power

Mega-Events, Geopolitics, and Making Nations Great Again
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-981-963514-6
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buch, Englisch, 153 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 341 g

Reihe: Mega Event Planning

This open access book explores the linkages between geopolitics and hosting mega-events. It encompasses and transcends the international and domestic dimensions of soft power to unpack how mega-events shape cities and societies through notions of unity and greatness, but also investigates local developments beneath the Potemkin surface of the global spectacle. Drawing on a global range of case studies from Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, this volume features the sensitivity of grounded local research framed within geopolitical perspectives. Together, they present an international and transdisciplinary understanding of the local and global political implications of hosting mega-events. The volume reveals what hides under the mega-event spectacle: problems that – regardless of national context – most often occur to the detriment of host populations. 

This is an open access book.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wolfe, Sven Daniel

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Kommunal-, Regional-, und Landespolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: Rationales and foundational concepts - 2. Geopolitics and international sporting events in the United Kingdom: Constitutional navel-gazing and the politics of event hosting - 3 When the stage came down: A short-term feel-good experience at South Africa’s World Cup - 4. Behind the golden glow: The soft power, Potemkinism, and protest of Australian mega-events - 5. Stepping out of the shadows: The role of pivotal individuals in Qatar’s aspirations to host mega-events - 6. From “being there is everything” to “go big or go home”? Comparing the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing - 7. The authoritarian legacy: Mega-event security, the managerial-militarized model, and the rise of the far-right in Brazil - 8. The Eastern European mega-event decade: Sports, geopolitics, and war at the start of the 21 century - 9. The Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics: Soft power, sportswashing, and the invasion of Iraq - 10. Conclusion: After the spotlight -

Über Autor(innen)

Sven Daniel Wolfe is a political and urban geographer. He is Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione fellow in the Spatial Planning and Urban Policy group at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He works on the planning and impacts of mega-events, with a specific focus on urban sustainable development and everyday geopolitics. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles on mega-events, as well as the monograph  (2021, LIT Verlag). He has lectured widely on the problems and potentials of mega-events, to audiences ranging from academics to members of local and national governments, in numerous countries including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.