This book analyses the biggest, most spectacular and at times most controversial types of events, namely ‘mega-events’, and particularly recent Olympics and Expos. In this respect it builds on the sociological, historical and empirical account of mega-events originally presented in Roche’s influential study ‘Mega-Events and Modernity’ (2000). This new book addresses how mega-events have changed in recent times. It argues that contemporary mega-events reflect the major social changes which now influence our societies, particularly in the West, and which amount to a new ‘second phase’ of the mod ... More

This book analyses the biggest, most spectacular and at times most controversial types of events, namely ‘mega-events’, and particularly recent Olympics and Expos. In this respect it builds on the sociological, historical and empirical account of mega-events originally presented in Roche’s influential study ‘Mega-Events and Modernity’ (2000). This new book addresses how mega-events have changed in recent times. It argues that contemporary mega-events reflect the major social changes which now influence our societies, particularly in the West, and which amount to a new ‘second phase’ of the modernization process. These are particularly visible in the media, urban and global locational aspects of mega-events. The book suggests that contemporary mega-events, both in their achievements and their vulnerabilities, reflect, in the media sphere, the rise of the internet; in the urban sphere, de-industrialisation and the growing ecological crisis; and in the global sphere, the relative decline of the West and the rise of China and other ‘emerging’ countries. It investigates the way in which contemporary mega-events reflect, but also mark and influence, social changes in each of these three contexts.