Introduction

This chapter explores the relevance of cultural policy frameworks to interrogate global event hosting processes, the Olympic Games in particular. It starts by reviewing the impact of globalisation on the definition and application of cultural policy principles, arguing that this has led to a convergence between cultural and communication frameworks. The chapter then touches on the implications of such trend for cities and regions and moves on to reflect on the role of mega-events as catalysts for locally-based cultural policies with a global outreach. The last section of the chapter introduces the Olympic Games as a paradigm of all these processes combined. Throughout the chapter, I focus particularly on revisiting the state of cultural policy debates in the late 1990s, as this is the period leading to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the distinct cultural policy choices that framed its four year cultural programme, which will be the main case study explored throughout the monograph.