Mega-events in Eastern Europe

Mega-events in Eastern Europe
Date: 29 – 31 October 2012
Location: Lviv | Ukraine

Guest Speaker
Elena Trubina (Ural State University | Russia)

Academic Coordinator
Martin Müller (Universität St. Gallen | Switzerland)

Organisers
Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, Universität St. Gallen, Switzerland, www.gce.unisg.ch
Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv, Ukraine, www.lvivcenter.org

Scope
A number of countries in Eastern Europe are currently preparing to host global mega-events. Among the largest are the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine, the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, the 2012 APEC Summit in Vladivostok, the 2013 Universiade in Kazan, the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The requirements for hosting mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup are similar all over the world and set through standards and contractual requirements. Yet, the processes for planning for them as well as the outcomes differ vastly between countries. The focus of the majority of research on mega-events in Western countries is increasingly at odds with the practice of awarding them to emerging economies and has so far elided a substantial engagement with cross-national variations in their organisation and impacts.

This workshop seeks to initiate a discussion on the new wave of mega-events in Eastern Europe. In so doing, it aims to develop an understanding of the variegated institutional, economic and cultural constellations and recombinant forms of rule that have emerged in Eastern European states and cities (Pickles 2010; Sýkora and Bouzarovski 2011) and shape the trajectories of mega-events (Müller 2011). How, for example, are mega-events an epiphenomenon of globalization with at the same time rather specific regional inflections? How do reforms in urban governance and the introduction of new planning processes relate to the organisation of mega-events (Gel'man 2003, 2009; Stanilov 2007; Tsenkova and Nedović-Budić 2006)? What is the role of the state in the preparation? How are mega-events used for branding and place promotion (Young and Kaczmarek 2008)? In examining these processes, we expect to find both convergence and divergence in the organisation of similar events in other parts of the world.

While one focus of the workshop will be on the urban and regional impacts of mega-events, we encourage submissions with a sound theoretical grounding that might discuss wide range of themes related to mega-events in Eastern Europe, such as:

• planning processes
  
• governance
  
• urban regeneration
  
• architecture
  
• economic impacts
  
• social impacts
  
• the role of the state
  
• public attitudes
  
• environment and sustainability
  
• globalization and regionalization
  
• urban image and place promotion
  
• atmosphere
  
• security and surveillance
  
• national and regional identities
  
• discourses of modernity

Format

The format of the workshop will be a small-group, intense discussion of a selection of about six to ten papers.

Logistics

The organizers welcome paper proposals (maximum 500 words) by 30 April 2012. Upon acceptance, the selected participants will be asked to provide a full-length working paper as the basis for discussion by 01 October 2012. The workshop will take place in Lviv (Ukraine), host city of Euro 2012, from 29 to 31 October. Accommodation and board will be provided. Bursaries to defray travel costs will be available. Please send your proposals to martin.mueller@unisg.ch.

Publication

Publication of a special issue in an international peer-reviewed journal will be pursued.

Relevant literature:

Gel'man, V. 2003. In search of local autonomy: the politics of big cities in Russia's transition. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27 (1):48-61.

———. 2009. Leviathan's return: the policy of recentralization in contemporary Russia. In Federalism and local politics in Russia, eds. C. Ross and A. Campbell, 1-24. London: Routledge.

Müller, M. 2011. State dirigisme in megaprojects: governing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Environment and Planning A 43 (9):2091-2108.

Pickles, J. 2010. The spirit of post-socialism: common spaces and the production of diversity. European Urban and Regional Studies 17 (2):127-140.

Stanilov, K. ed. 2007. The post-socialist city: urban form and space transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after socialism. Dordrecht: Springer.

Sýkora, L., and S. Bouzarovski. 2011. Multiple transformations: conceptualising the post-socialist urban transition. Urban Studies 49 (1):43-60.

Tsenkova, S., and Z. Nedović-Budić eds. 2006. The urban mosaic of post-socialist Europe: space, institutions and policy. Physica: Heidelberg.

Young, C., and S. Kaczmarek. 2008. The socialist past and postsocialist urban identity in central and eastern Europe. European Urban and Regional Studies 15 (1):53-70.