A guide to useful post-Olympic Expressions is compiled here: Useful Post-Olympic Expressions.… Read the rest
Towards a Good Enough Legacy: the Long Term Impact of London 2012
As London 2012 draws to a close the questions of Legacy and how to measure the Games’ impact emerge as present tense issues. In this week’s Friday essay Phil Cohen challenges the starting point of these discussions: the assumption that the population who use and will come to use the space all share the same vision as the narrowly selected development committee.… Read the rest
Beyond Carnival Capitalism: London 2012 and its Legacy of Hope
London 2012 provided a key insight into the shifting relationships between global, national and local as residents with no material stake in the Games came together to participate in their success. How might the power of this already-existing ‘commons’ pave the way for an alternative legacy?
Read the article on the openDemocracy ezine: Beyond Carnival Capitalism… Read the rest
Globalisation And Its Discontents, After 2012
There are a number of grand narratives within which the Olympics might be evaluated, each of which inscribes the project in a very different value nexus. Perhaps the dominant paradigm on the Left is that of globalisation. The Olympics, and sports in general, are read as symptomatic of larger economic forces at work in the society, of which globalisation is paramount .… Read the rest
Where East Meets West: Gary’s Olympic Game
The transcript that follows is from an interview with Gary Carpenter then aged 18, who describes the people he met and incidents that happened while he was working with his dad as a riggers assistant. I first met the Carpenters during a health and safety induction session at the Carpenters Road site and subsequently conducted interviews with each of them separately and one with them together.… Read the rest
The Cultural Olympiad: Carrying the Torch for Art?
This text explores the cultural politics and poetics of the London Olympics. It begins by looking at the growth of ‘feel good’ art in the context of the economic recession. It goes on to discuss the contemporary role of poetry in public culture , and the relationship b between the aesthetics of sport and literature. It concluded with a detailed reading of the poetry commissioned for the Olympic Park.… Read the rest
London New Jerusalem 2012 : An Alternative Scenario for the Opening Ceremony
This scenario has been compiled from ideas produced by focus groups made up of a representive cross section of the East London community. It is related to issues discussed in Chapter 7 of ‘The Wrong Side of the Track? ‘
View the full document here: East End Old London New Jerusalem Olympic Circus 2012… Read the rest
