ABSTRACT
In the years leading up to the thirtieth modern Olympiad, the official discourse of London 2012 was dominated not by athletics but by the prospect of urban regeneration in East London and by the possibility of mass participation in a communitybuilding process. Under the terms of this discourse, the Olympiad would serve to re-engineer a regional economy characterised by lack of development and longterm, deep-seated deprivation. Meanwhile, the people of Britain, especially those living in the deprived areas of East London, would gain health and well-being from taking part in the preparations for the Olympiad, from entering into the community spirit of the whole enterprise and from volunteering for a supporting role during the Olympiad itself. Thus, London 2012 was invoked as the continuation of society by other means, reawakening economic development and rekindling conviviality – this in the absence of class-based solidarity, now defunct.
