Changing mega-events’ spatial strategies and cultural policy: scaling down, spacing out, and assembling organizations in the cases of London and Milan

Abstract

Despite the proposed ‘certainty’ in a city or region hosting a mega-event, there has long been issues of uncertainty surrounding the planning and implementation of what have until now essentially been mega-projects. Large events have found a variety of ways to adapt and respond to unforeseen circumstances due to political conflicts, planning of oversize venues, limited time of implementation, and legacies that are difficult to manage. Considering the further increased uncertainty surrounding the planning of mega-events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines how an accompanying cultural component—e.g., the Cultural Olympiad—may help cities that plan for events like the Olympics transition toward diversified drivers and long-term legacy. In particular, the case of cultural offering in Milan between the two mega-events of Expo 2015 and the upcoming 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games shows how host cities can address growing uncertainty through the expanded role of a cultural programme combined with the rescaling of traditional mega-event formats. With this purpose, 2012 London Cultural Olympiad has been selected as an antecedent example—with positive and negative outcomes—to critically review the relationships between the Olympics and the Cultural Olympiad, as well as their widespread spatial strategy and public engagement. In addition, the paper offers more general conclusions regarding learning potentials of jointly studying mega-events and cultural policy.

How do stakeholders co-create value in a service ecosystem? Insight from mega-events

“…It ensured an effective collaboration and engagement among relevant stakeholders (Getz, 2008). It adopted robust strategic planning and event management (Jones et al, 2022), guaranteed by its infrastructure. Venues were ready and just needed updating (Burbank et al, 2002), and community support was ensured early on Pappas (2014).…”

“…Concerning specifically mega-events, numerous authors have explored the prerequisites necessary for them to generate value and yield positive impacts and legacies. These preconditions encompass effective collaboration and engagement among relevant stakeholders (Getz, 2008), robust strategic planning and event management (Jones et al, 2022), ensuring infrastructure and venues are prepared in time to avoid hastily applied "quick fixes" (Burbank et al, 2002;M€ uller, 2015), and, crucially, garnering social and community support. Generally, local communities are willing to bear the costs associated with hosting an event as long as they perceive the benefits to outweigh them (Jackson, 2008;Pappas, 2014).…”

Does culture have transformative power to make the Olympic Games sustainable?

“…One of the other obstacles is physical: the restricted use by the wider public of Olympic venues and villages, only accessible to ticket holders and Olympic actors during the games, limits appropriation. The recent development of multi-stakeholder co-production, around several host cities or territories, as exemplified in Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026 (Jones et al, 2022), could also offer a better link-up with OCOGs.…”

“…Although this was Garcia’s starting perspective (2004), further research is needed to analyze how Olympic cultural programming interacts with urban planning, place appropriation, and local legacy. Such exploration would benefit from ethnographic and a detailed knowledge of local cultural dynamics, as mapped in the HERITRISK matrix (Doustaly and Zembri-Mary, 2019) and also draw on later frameworks (Jones et al, 2022).…”

“…Jones et al is right to point that ‘the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad took great efforts to use existing widespread spaces, from the alternative to the iconic as well as the historic’ (Jones et al, 2022); however, for a long time, the Park itself was not accessible to locals and restricted to building works or Olympic participants and ticket holders during the games. The only cultural ‘legacies’ other than architecture became a public art trail (Garcia 2014).…”