Potemkin Neoliberalism and Domestic Soft Power in the 2018 Men's Football World Cop in Russia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Unicentre CH-1015 Lausanne http://serval.unil.ch Year : 2019 “Fanatic Energy in the Wrong Places”: Potemkin Neoliberalism and Domestic Soft Power in the 2018 Men’s Football World Cup in Russia Sven Daniel Wolfe Wolfe, Sven Daniel, 2019, “Fanatic Energy in the Wrong Places”: Potemkin Neoliberalism and Domestic Soft Power in the 2018 Men’s Football World Cup in Russia Originally published at: Thesis, University of Lausanne Posted at the University of Lausanne Open Archive http://serval.unil.ch Document URN: urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_8C1DB62BE2B57 Droits d’auteur L'Université de Lausanne attire expressément l'attention des utilisateurs sur le fait que tous les documents publiés dans l'Archive SERVAL sont protégés par le droit d'auteur, conformément à la loi fédérale sur le droit d'auteur et les droits voisins (LDA). A ce titre, il est indispensable d'obtenir le consentement préalable de l'auteur et/ou de l’éditeur avant toute utilisation d'une oeuvre ou d'une partie d'une oeuvre ne relevant pas d'une utilisation à des fins personnelles au sens de la LDA (art. 19, al. 1 lettre a). A défaut, tout contrevenant s'expose aux sanctions prévues par cette loi. Nous déclinons toute responsabilité en la matière. Copyright The University of Lausanne expressly draws the attention of users to the fact that all documents published in the SERVAL Archive are protected by copyright in accordance with federal law on copyright and similar rights (LDA). Accordingly it is indispensable to obtain prior consent from the author and/or publisher before any use of a work or part of a work for purposes other than personal use within the meaning of LDA (art. 19, para. 1 letter a). Failure to do so will expose offenders to the sanctions laid down by this law. We accept no liability in this respect. “Fanatic Energy in the Wrong Places”: Potemkin Neoliberalism and Domestic Soft Power in the 2018 Men’s Football World Cup in Russia Thèse de doctorat Présentée à la Faculté des géosciences et de l’environnement, Institut de géographie et durabilité de l’Université de Lausanne par Sven Daniel Wolfe Master of Geographies of Global Change University of Zurich Master of Political Science, Russian and Eurasian Studies European University at St. Petersburg Jury: Prof. Martin Müller, directeur de thèse (Université de Lausanne) Prof. Natalie Koch, experte (Syracuse University) Dr Michał Murawski, expert (University College London) Dr Gabriel Silvestre, expert (University of Sheffield) Dr Christophe Mager, expert (Université de Lausanne) Sous la présidence du Prof. Eric Verrecchia Lausanne 2019 il-"r(*- UNIL j Universitê de Lausanne Faculte cies qec,taieirces êt d* i'ênvirûnnenlent bàlrtrtent Ga:polis i:r.lreau 46J I IMPRIMATUR Vu le rapport présenté par le jury d'examen, composé de Président de la séance publique M. Ie Professeur E,ric Verrecchia Président du colloque : M. le Professeur Eric Verrecchia l)irecteur dc thèse : M. le Professeur Martin Mûller Hxpert interne : M. le Docteur Christophe Mager Experte externe : Mme la Professeure Natalie Koch Expert externe : M, le Docteur Miohal Murawski Expert externe : M. le Doctcur Gabriel Silvestre Le Doyen de la Faculté des géosciences et de I'environnement autorise I'imprcssion de la thèse de Monsieur Sven Daniel \ryOLFE Titulaire d'un Master en Géographie de l'Université de Zuriclt intitulée "Fanatic Energy in the Wrong Places": Potemkin Neoliberalism and Domestic Soft Power in the 2018 Men's Football World Cop in Russia Lausanne. le 21 août 2019 Pour le Doyen de la Faculté des géoscicnces et de I'environnement Profcsseur Christian Kull Summary This thesis uses the 2018 World Cup in Russia to engage with the processes of neoliberal restructuring and the conception of soft power. Based on a comparison of the host cities of Ekaterinburg and Volgograd, it unpacks the World Cup at multiple scales of analysis and offers a light and revisable framework for understanding mega-events. Grounded in primary qualitative and secondary documentary data, the thesis demonstrates multiple dimensions of Potemkinism in the articulation of this World Cup. Inspired by but moving beyond traditional post-colonial thought, it attempts to make good on the premise of theorizing from anywhere, making a case for the relatively invisible cities of the Global East in a landscape of urban theory dominated by the hegemonic North or the subaltern South. This ambition represents the overall frame for the thesis, while the work itself focuses more specifically on the planning and impacts of hosting the World Cup. This work is composed of two central thrusts. Within an understanding of mega-events as fundamentally urban events, the first thrust explores hosting as the vanguard of neoliberal restructuring, one of the traditional means of making sense of mega-events. In this view, bidding and hosting are seen as a strategy for inter-urban competition and a ploy to attract increased flows of tourists and capital. This is understood as one of the markers of a shift to a more entrepreneurial mode of urban governance and is part of wider global political economic restructuring that de-emphasizes the national in favor of regional or municipal scales. Using Neil Brenner’s conceptualization of rescaled competition state regimes, this part of the thesis explores how rescaling worked on the ground in Russia and demonstrates that these processes of neoliberalization are not as easily understood as they might first appear. Instead, what is revealed in the articulation of the Russian World Cup is a seemingly paradoxical combination of national state-led projects to develop the peripheries in regionally and municipally specific ways, for the purposes of interurban differentiation and competition. The thesis proposes the notion of Potemkin neoliberalism to make sense of these seeming paradoxes and, further, traces some of the uneven developments within the host cities. This is framed within an emphasis on the superficial rather than the substantive, meaning an attention towards aesthetics and appearance rather than on structural reforms and durable infrastructural improvements. Summary v The second thrust investigates Joseph Nye’s notion of soft power, which is another traditional way of understanding the rationales for hosting mega-events. Soft power analyses typically frame hosting through the lens of foreign policy, a view that tends to ignore the domestic component entirely. Separate from this, some mega-event studies focus on hosting as a strategy for nation- or identity building, but typically these do not situate this domestic concern within the conceptual apparatus of soft power. Combining these two approaches, this thesis takes the Russian World Cup as a primarily domestic affair, both to develop the urban peripheries (as demonstrated in the first thrust), and to inculcate certain soft power narratives within the domestic population. Conceptualizing the narrative project as soft power allows a tracing of each element in the soft power equation: narrative generation, the mechanisms of distribution, and the reception (or lack thereof) among host city residents. This is presented as discursive Potemkinism, whereby a certain set narratives were promoted as the official way to understand the mega-event, though with little attention to the realities underneath. Finally, the thesis explores the final element in the soft power equation – the impacts on host city residents – through an attention to the micro level of everyday life. In this, it engages with de Certeau and Lefebvre to create a spectrum of tactics employed by residents to disalienate themselves by various degrees from World Cup developments. The thesis emphasizes the individual and the quotidian to offer a more nuanced, human level approach to understanding mega-event-led urban development. Situated in a relational comparative urbanism that valorizes the Global East, these two thrusts represent the core contributions of this monograph. Overall, the thesis presents an investigation of the 2018 men’s Football World Cup that takes stock of global political economic processes, Russian national state spatial strategies, uneven municipal developments, the creation and distribution of soft power narratives to the domestic audience, and the adoption, reworking, or outright refusal of those narratives among host city residents. Summary vi Résumé Cette thèse utilise l’exemple de la Coupe du Monde de 2018 en Russie pour analyser les processus de restructuration néolibérale, et la conception da la « puissance douce » (« soft power » en anglais). Elle se base sur la comparaison des villes de Ekaterinbourg et de Volgograd qui ont hébergé la Coupe du Monde, et elle offre un cadre léger et révisable pour comprendre les méga-événements a plusieurs échelles. A travers un travail de recherche qualitatif, basé sur des données ethnographiques et documentaires, la thèse met en lumière les multiples dimensions du Potemkinisme dans l'articulation de cette Coupe du Monde. Elle s'inspire de la pensée postcoloniale qui encourage la création de théorie à partir de n'importe où, mais va au delà, en examinant les villes relativement invisibles de l'Est Global, dans un paysage de théorie urbaine dominé par l’opposition de Nord hégémonique/Sud subalterne. Cette ambition constitue le cadre général de la thèse, tandis que le travail lui-même se concentre plus spécifiquement sur la planification et les impacts de l'organisation de la Coupe du Monde. La thèse est composée de deux discussions centrales. La première discussion explore l’hébergement de la Coupe du Monde comme l'avant-garde de la restructuration néolibérale, une façon traditionnelle de comprendre méga-événements, en les considérant comme des événements fondamentalement urbains. De ce point de vue, l'appel d'offres et l’hébergement sont considérés comme des stratégies de concurrence interurbaine, et un stratagème pour attirer des flux grandissants de touristes et capitaux. Ceux-ci sont compris comme l'un des marqueurs d'un passage à un mode plus entrepreneurial de gouvernance urbaine, et s'inscrivent dans le cadre d'une restructuration politique et économique mondiale plus large qui met moins l'accent sur le national au profit des échelles régionales ou municipales.