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Category: Urban Development

A quick look at my keynote in Mendrisio: mega-events and marginalities, substance and spectacle

A quick look at my keynote in Mendrisio: mega-events and marginalities, substance and spectacle

Earlier this month I was invited to give a keynote at a symposium in at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Mendrisio, called Marginal urbanities: The hidden face of planetary urbanisation. It was organized by Mosè Cometta and Giulia Scotto, two wonderful scholars who did a great job putting together the program. It was broad enough that we could all learn from each other’s perspectives but small enough to be intimate and personal. A tough balance, that. My keynote focused…

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Russian athletes and sports during a time of war

Russian athletes and sports during a time of war

I really enjoy speaking with Sportschau, which I think is the most influential sports program on German television. To their credit, they feature the work of Robert Kempe, who does great work on sports and politics, and who pursues difficult stories with nuance and integrity. It’s a hard combo but I think he does it admirably. In this segment, he investigates the impossible situation of having Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in global sport while the Russian state pursues its…

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An extremely happy new year to you and yours

An extremely happy new year to you and yours

So I published a book! It looks like this: And I know it’s not perfect by any means, and I’d love to have a go at bringing some of the chapters more in line with my current thinking. But that’s the way this game is played, and I have to admit that I am overjoyed at holding an actual copy in my actual hands. You can get a copy here, at the fine and wonderful publisher. Or, if you’d like,…

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New special issue out now: The urban and economic impacts of mega-events

New special issue out now: The urban and economic impacts of mega-events

It’s been a long road, but finally our special issue is complete and out in the (virtual) world at last. Some lessons learned about special issues and collaborative publishing projects: It’s going to take longer than you want or expect. Everyone is busy, overwhelmed, working on a last-minute project. Budget in more time than you think you need. A clear project plan is your best friend. I made an excel file that had every contributor and every contribution, along with…

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The Promise and Pitfalls of the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia

The Promise and Pitfalls of the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia

Note: this was originally slated to be a commentary piece for a non peer-reviewed expert journal that shall remain nameless. For reasons I still don’t understand, the editor never wrote me back after commissioning and receiving the piece. I found it again recently during some computer cleanup, and given that it’s over a year past the date they said they would publish – it was aimed for before the 2018 World Cup – I’m going to share the draft here….

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Two Potential Post-Doc Paths

Two Potential Post-Doc Paths

Another challenge in writing this dissertation is the idea that I also have to lay the groundwork for the next phase of my academic career, such as it is. So aside from the fact that I have to believe in myself and my potential for doing good work – despite the barrage of self-reproach that I too often inflict on myself because I’m swimming in the mud of dissertation writing every day – I simply have to find the time…

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File under: clever strategies to skim a little off the top

File under: clever strategies to skim a little off the top

Kirill Bezrukov (@KBezrukov) pointed me to this beautiful example of savvy business in Kaliningrad. There’s a bridge (Vysokiy Most, or High Bridge) that connects the main parts of Kaliningrad to Oktyabrskiy Ostrov, a quirky, mostly undeveloped island in the middle of the city. Among other things, the city’s World Cup development agenda involves transforming this island into a viable part of the city. So the new 35,000 seat World Cup stadium is sited there, and other developments are slated to…

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A trashy kind of Olympic legacy

A trashy kind of Olympic legacy

In preparation for my talk at this year’s American Association of Geographers annual conference I’ve been thinking about Sochi several years after the Olympics. I think it’s worth taking a look at the city after the circus has left town, when the international spotlight has largely moved on to other events and other places. Sochi 2014 was never just about the sport. Beyond the aspirations to reframe public perceptions of Russia inside and outside the nation, there was a clear attempt…

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The World Cup and/or Urban Development

The World Cup and/or Urban Development

Mega-events are mega expensive – this is nothing new. And while there are exhaustive lists of the high costs of preparing for the Olympics or the World Cup, there is also evidence that in some cases these are better understood not as the costs of a sporting event, but rather as massive development projects with a sporting event attached. In my view, there is some validity to this argument. In Russia, for example, the 2018 World Cup is clearly being…

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