[Kaupunkitutkimus] VL: Call for papers: “Mega-events and Cultural Heritage: Emerging Challenges in European Cities”

[Sampo Ruoppila]

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Call for papers
“Mega-events and Cultural Heritage: Emerging Challenges in European Cities”
Special issue for the European Planning Studies journal
Guest Editor
Davide Ponzini (Politecnico di Milano)

In past decades, many cities used mega-events to attempt at supporting investments and boosting tourism while harnessing their competitiveness on a global scale. Until recently, the emphasis has been placed by and large on the creation of new infrastructural components, new stadiums and other public facilities to host events. In many instances today, on the contrary, mega-event organizers have realized that this approach could generate serious financial, planning and political problems (therefore withdrawing from bidding process) leading to cities opting for the re-use of existing facilities, the conversion of inner-city areas and the regeneration of neighborhoods. For heritage-rich European cities in particular, this shift in paradigm represents both an opportunity and a threat. On one hand, mega-event planning dynamics may streamline resources and new projects for heritage places and facilities. On the other hand, the strategy of hosting a mega-event and related goals (e.g. attracting high volumes of visitors for short periods, with the intention to boost long-term tourism trends) can commodify and irreversibly affect the physical spatial qualities and social uses of an area and its heritage value. Despite the opportunities and threats that mega-events tend to generate in heritage-rich cities and the importance of related planning matters, limited research is available.
The special issue “Mega-events and Cultural Heritage: Emerging Challenges in European Cities” intends to bring together international scholars and experts to discuss the diverse experiences of mega-events such as the European Capital of Culture, Expo, Olympics and other programs as well. Particular attention will be given to the European Capital of Culture (ECoC), one of the key cultural policy programs of the European Commission that has become an important tool for small to medium sized cities across Europe to spark processes of urban regeneration, cultural promotion and to establish a new city image. Other mega-events directly or indirectly make use of historic sites and heritage in host cities, but they have been little studied so far (e.g. Cultural Olympiads) and require further attention.
The call welcomes a variety of research approaches and methods coming from planning, mega-event and heritage disciplines as well as others. The call aims at addressing issues and problems such as:
-the use and transformation of historic sites and landscapes, their environments, heritage and image for/during the mega-event, and their longer term implications/effects;
-response of heritage policy making to mega-event planning, such as changes in the governance, regulation, etc. of heritage policy and cultural offerings to meet mega-event goals, or such as opposition to specific measures/projects or ways of operating;
-instances of heritage-sensitive initiatives and projects that fostered the cooperation with mega-event policy-makers and assessment of the long-term urban effects;
-discovery of or attention-focusing on underexploited heritage and sites in the city or (even creating new heritage) in relation to the mega-event and for the more general goal of boosting tourism (including possible urban effects such as touristification, gentrification, etc.);
-Short-and-medium-term implications for city politics (protests focusing on heritage sites or historic city areas; on the contrary successful empowering of tourism-and-event constituencies, political lock-ins and the continuing of event-related investments after the mega-event, relationship with development strategies and visions, etc.);
-observation of typical mega-event policy discourses, rationales, planning tools, etc. against the evidence of one or more cases of mega-event in heritage-rich cities.

The call welcomes proposals including theoretical discussions (e.g. blind spots at the crossroads between heritage and mega-event planning theories) as well as reflections based on case studies from all quadrants of Europe or other situations relevant to the topic. The time span of reference can also vary from medium to long term, with papers addressing investigations of plans and projects for forthcoming mega-events that entail a special relationship with the reuse of existing facilities, infrastructure, built or intangible heritage.

References

Bianchini, F., Albano, R., & Bollo, A. (2013). The regenerative impacts of the European City/Capital of Culture events. In M. E. Leary & J. McCarthy (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Urban Regeneration. London: Routledge.

Falk, M., & Hagsten, E. (2017). Measuring the impact of the European Capital of Culture programme on overnight stays: evidence for the last two decades. European Planning Studies, 25(12), 2175-2191.

Gammon, S., Ramshaw, G., & Waterton, E. (Eds.). (2013). Examining the Olympics: Heritage, identity and performance. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 19(2), 119–124.

García, B. (2005). Deconstructing the city of culture: The long-term cultural legacies of Glasgow 1990. Urban Studies, 42(5), 841–868.

García, B., & Cox, T. (2013). European Capitals of Culture: Success Strategies and Long-Term Effects. Luxembourg: European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education.
Gold, J. R., & Gold, M. M. (2017). Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World’s Games, 1896–2020. New York: Routledge.
Gunay, Z. (2010). Conservation versus regeneration? The case of European Capital of Culture 2010 Istanbul. European Planning Studies, 18(8), 1173-1186.
Jones, Z. M., & Ponzini, D. (2018). Mega-events and the preservation of urban heritage: Literature gaps, potential overlaps and a call for further research. Journal of Planning Literature, 33(4), 433–450.
Lähdesmäki, T. (2014). European capital of culture designation as an initiator of urban transformation in the post-socialist countries. European Planning Studies, 22(3), 481-497.

Lauermann, J. (2014). Competition through interurban policy making: Bidding to host megaevents as entrepreneurial networking. Environment and Planning A, 46(11), 2638-2653.
Liu, Y. D. (2014). Cultural events and cultural tourism development: Lessons from the European Capitals of Culture. European Planning Studies, 22(3), 498-514.
Müller, M. (2015). The mega-event syndrome: Why so much goes wrong in mega-event planning and what to do about it. Journal of the American Planning Association, 81(1), 6–17.

Richards, G., & Palmer, R. (2010). Eventful Cities: Cultural Management and Urban Revitalisation. Oxford: Elsevier.

Ruoppila, S. (2015). Policy, population and spatial effects of Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture. Urbanistica, 155, 83-89.

Sykes, O. (2011). Introduction: European cities and capitals of culture–a comparative approach. Town Planning Review, 82(1), 1-12.

Tommarchi, E., Hansen, L. E., & Bianchini, F. (2018). Problematising the question of participation in Capitals of Culture. Participations, 15(2), 154–169.


All interested authors should send a 500 word abstract for proposing a paper (including title, authors’ name and affiliation) to davide.ponzini at polimi.it<mailto:davide.ponzini at polimi.it>

Submission guidelines
Deadline for abstract submission: December 1, 2019
Feedback on abstract submission: December 20, 2019
Full paper submission:  February 1, 2020
For full instructions on how to format your article, please visit the Instructions for Authors webpage<https://tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=ceps20&page=instructions&utm_source=CPB&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JOE09793&utm_source=CPB&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JOJ11469> ( https://tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=ceps20 )

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Davide Ponzini, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies
Politecnico di Milano
Via Bonardi 3, 20133 Milano, Italy
Tel +39 02 23995414
Email davide.ponzini at polimi.it<mailto:davide.ponzini at polimi.it>

<http://www.tau-lab.polimi.it>
Interviewed on: BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed, “Spectacular Cities"<https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00035p8>