ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on what the available social scientific scholarship on sport mega-events has brought to light on their significance for community building, urban development and the formation of collective identities and global civil society. It draws on the sociological understanding of sport mega-events as collecting points for a variety of aspirations by differing stakeholders. Sport has contributed to processes of nation-building as well as the expansionary politics of colonization; in response to the cultural imperialism of European powers, sport also assumed a prominent role for the assertion of national identity in postcolonial processes of state-building. In the context of sport mega-events, resistance to the ‘hegemonic Olympic industry’ among activists and residents living in host cities led to the formation of early social movements. Public protests and campaigns by nongovernmental organizations against the negative impacts of hosting have become regular accompaniments to the games.
