ABSTRACT
Mega-events are contested drivers of contemporary urban development. They are powerful catalysts as much as agitators within a planetary urban environment, triggering change for local project development practice, global representation and citizenship rights, entitlements, and provisions wherever they take place. This book frames “mega-events” as large-scale cultural, economic, sport, political, or media events with a global profile and impact. Mega-events are by definition temporary. Over the past few decades, however, their legacy has become an integral concern of their making. They require extensive and complex planning and all have long-term consequences for the urban areas they are situated within (Müller and Gaffney 2018a). Rather than focusing on a specific typology (Olympic Games, Expos, international fairs, etc.), we opt for the category of “mega-events” to be able to discuss a logic of urban development linked to a matrix of transnational interconnection and the capacity to reposition cities and places in the global arena. More specifically, we are interested in the ways in which mega-events are crucial drivers of urban and citizenship transformations as there is always a ‘before’ and ‘after’ for the urban context these events are invested in.
