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Rio-London: Olympic Cities Symposium focuses on social impact of ‘mega-events’

Thursday 3 May 2012

Rio Olympic Cities symposium

UEL joined forces with Brazil’s University of São Paulo and Gama Filho University last month for the Rio-London: Olympic Cities symposium, the main focus of which was to explore the social impact which ‘mega-events’ such as the Olympics have on their host cities.

The event, organised under the coordination of Professor Lamartine DaCosta, Director of the Olympic Studies Centre at Gama Filho University, and a visiting professor at UEL, took place at the university's Downtown Ccampus, adjacent to Rio’s 2016 Olympic Park, now under construction.

A number of key UEL academics spoke at the event. In a presentation entitled ‘Real and imagined legacies, and the implications for evaluation’, Ralph Ward, a visiting fellow at UEL, discussed the legacy ‘gap’ that exists between the grandiose expectations generated by the Olympic bid and the reality left behind by the Games themselves. He argued that legacy will be judged by “the visible long term value the city secures from its Olympic investment.” In the case of London, a tangible improvements to some of the most deprived areas of East London.

‘Evidencing the Impacts and Sustainability of the London 2012 Games Legacy’ was the theme of Professor Allan Brimicombe’s presentation, Head of UEL’s Centre for Geo-Information Studies, while Fernando Telles, who received an Honorary Doctorate from UEL last year for services to sport and to the community, took a conceptual approach when reviewing the changing meaning of the term ‘legacy’.

Professor Keith Gilbert, Director of UEL’s Centre for Sport, Disability & Health, ended the session with a presentation entitled ‘What are the legacies of the Paralympic Games?’ He suggested that theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) is wishing to take control for itself of the Paralympic Games, as it sees them as a marketable commodity in their own right. Professor Gilbert concluded that recent work on developing awareness of their legacy has focussed on social outcomes, particularly, improving disability awareness in the community.

The symposium was attended by over 700 academics from 32 Brazilian universities. Its success provided the impetus for a major international research conference on the theme of Olympic Cities: Urban Legacies to be heldat the University of East London in July 2013.

All contributions to the event will be made available to the public online.

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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