Playing games and concepts : Beijing Olympics and China urban development model

Abstract

Staging of mega-events have gradually emerged as large-scale urban projects. Although mega-events are short-lived, the urban impact they leave behind have a tendency to last decades. Urban planning and management have increasingly capitalized on the exceptional environment from mega-events for ambitious urban development projects. Mega-event deadlines permit politicians and projects to be expedited and go around normally required measures. Under the unique environment that mega-events offer, host cities have the power and opportunity to influence their development fate. Every mega-event happens within its own spatial socioeconomic and political context and host city urban developments have become more complex, for these reasons, the interest in the study of mega-event urbanization have significantly increased. This dissertation has researched the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to analyze the China urban development model with playing Games and concepts. The dissertation first examines previous Olympic Games and their urbanization models, methods, impacts, and results. It then investigates on the existing literature on the 2008 Games urbanization and highlights existing research gap. After, the dissertation conducts independent research and data analysis and identifies the Beijing Olympic and China urban development model. The following section compares and contrasts Beijing’s model from both international and national accounts and addresses this dissertation’s theoretical contribution. The concluding section assesses the research findings and offer policy recommendations based on China’s current context. The result of this dissertation provides an account of Beijing and China mega-event urbanization model that can assist future research by enriching the understanding of mega-event urbanization history in China.