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Living with London’s OlympicsLife in the Shadow of the Olympic Torch

Living with London’s Olympics: Life in the Shadow of the Olympic Torch [The separation of the ideological and the commercial, in the context of the Olympic Games, has captured the attention of many academics. To paraphrase Bourdieu (1984), if there is no way out of the game that is being played, in this case the commercialization of Olympism, the best option is to understand the game and work out the most appropriate and useful means to achieve a favorable outcome. This view resonates throughout the following IOC statement: “Without the support of the business community, without its technology, expertise, people, services, products, telecommunications, its financing—the Olympic Games could not and can not happen.”1 This raises the question whether it is a case of the Machiavellian iron fist of global commercialism being covered by the mitigating velvet glove of Olympism, or is it more a case of the nail of Olympism being driven home by the might of the commercial hammer. It would be logical to assume that it is a mixture of both, especially when considering that corporate branding and the attendant capitalistic ideology have become naturalized in Olympics coverage to the extent that the Olympics and commercialism are now synonymous (Slater 1998; Roche 2000; Barney et al. 2002; Scherer, Sam, and Batty 2005).] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Living with London’s OlympicsLife in the Shadow of the Olympic Torch

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2014
ISBN
978-1-349-49855-0
Pages
63 –78
DOI
10.1057/9781137453211_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The separation of the ideological and the commercial, in the context of the Olympic Games, has captured the attention of many academics. To paraphrase Bourdieu (1984), if there is no way out of the game that is being played, in this case the commercialization of Olympism, the best option is to understand the game and work out the most appropriate and useful means to achieve a favorable outcome. This view resonates throughout the following IOC statement: “Without the support of the business community, without its technology, expertise, people, services, products, telecommunications, its financing—the Olympic Games could not and can not happen.”1 This raises the question whether it is a case of the Machiavellian iron fist of global commercialism being covered by the mitigating velvet glove of Olympism, or is it more a case of the nail of Olympism being driven home by the might of the commercial hammer. It would be logical to assume that it is a mixture of both, especially when considering that corporate branding and the attendant capitalistic ideology have become naturalized in Olympics coverage to the extent that the Olympics and commercialism are now synonymous (Slater 1998; Roche 2000; Barney et al. 2002; Scherer, Sam, and Batty 2005).]

Published: Oct 28, 2015

Keywords: Community Group; Olympic Game; Bidding Process; Community Consultation; Corporate Branding

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