Resumen de When the Games Come to Town: Neoliberalism, Mega-Events andSocial Inclusion in the Vancouver2010 Winter Olympic Games
Rob Vanwynsberghe, Björn Surborg, Elvin Wyly
Vancouver’s successful bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games tookplace at a transformational moment for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Inthe first decade of this century, the IOC began to require host cities to address a muchwider range of local impacts of the ‘global Games’, and to undertake planning initiativesto ensure maximum local social inclusion. In this article, we present a case study of thepolicies and principles of social inclusion used by the Vancouver Organizing Committee(VANOC) in preparing for the 2010 Games. We use key informant interviews, documentanalysis and participant observation to study a specific programme — BuildingOpportunities with Business (BOB) — that was showcased as one of VANOC’s prominentdemonstrations of social inclusion. Our evidence suggests that Games planning processeshave become even more powerful instruments for the promotion of liberal philosophiesthrough neoliberal local governance regimes; social inclusion is promised through theproliferation of ever more institutionally diffused public–private partnerships. With theneoliberal shift from public service provision to private sector entrepreneurialism,individual employability becomes the primary goal of, and normative justificationfor, social inclusion policies. Heavily circumscribed VANOC efforts at specific typesof social inclusion have met with limited success, but it appears clear that the fusionof transnationally mobile mega-events and prevailing doctrines of neoliberalentrepreneurialism has become a significant new framework for local urban social policy.
