Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jan 7:3:805567.
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2021.805567. eCollection 2021.

Sport Mega-Events and Displacement of Host Community Residents: A Systematic Review

Claudio M Rocha  1 , Zixuan Xiao  1
Affiliations
Review

Sport Mega-Events and Displacement of Host Community Residents: A Systematic Review

Claudio M Rocha et al. Front Sports Act Living. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review to understand how empirical data have informed the knowledge about the relationship between hosting sport mega-events and displacement of host community residents. Following the PRISMA protocol, we conducted a search of academic and gray literature in sport, social sciences, and humanities databases. We excluded conceptual papers, conference abstracts, and works that discuss urban transformation or displacement but are not related to sport events. We also excluded works that associate sport mega-events with urban transformations but are not related to resident displacement. From the initial 2,372 works reviewed, 22 met the inclusion criteria. In empirical studies, displacement of residents has been studied exclusively in the context of the Olympic Games, since Seoul 1988, but with a higher frequency in most recent Games (Beijing, London, and Rio). The gigantism and the sense of urgency created by the Olympic Games may explain why this event has been frequently associated with resident displacement. Findings showed that residents suffered either direct, forced evictions or indirect displacements. The selected studies show a contradiction between the discourse of sport mega-events guardians for supporting the United Nations Sustainable Goals (SDG) and the practice of human rights within host cities of such events.

Keywords: Olympic Games; evictions; gentrification; removals; sport mega-events; sustainable development goals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agamben G. (2005). The State of Exception. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226009261.001.0001 - DOI
    1. Assadourian E. (2014). The Olympic Games: a modern plague. The Guardian. Available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/sochi-winter-olymp... (accessed April 14, 2021).
    1. Bernstock P. (2020). Evaluating the contribution of planning gain to an inclusive housing legacy: a case study of London 2012. Plan. Perspect. 35, 927–953. 10.1080/02665433.2019.1639210 - DOI
    1. Boykoff J. (2014). Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203370421 - DOI
    1. Boykoff J. (2017). The Olympics in the twenty-first century: where does Rio 2016 fit in? in Rio 2016: Olympic Myths, Hard Realities, ed Zimbalist A. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press; ), 13–34. Available online at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/j.ctt1vjqnp9.5 (accessed May 1, 2021). - DOI