WIEGO Resource Document No. 2 April 2012 Literature Survey: Mega-Events and the Working Poor, with a Special Reference to the 2010 FIFA World Cup James Duminy and updated by Thembi Luckett WIEGO Resource Documents WIEGO resource documents include WIEGO generated literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, and papers reflecting the findings from new empirical work. They provide detail to support advocacy, policy or research on specific issues. This literature survey was compiled for the Urban Policies Programme of the policy-research network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). It was commissioned under the Inclusive Cities Project in support of WIEGO’s efforts to monitor the impact of mega events on the working poor. About the Authors: James Duminy is a Researcher with the African Centre for Cities. Thembi Luckett is a researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. Publication date: April 2012 ISBN number: 978-92-95106-57-4 Please cite this publication as: Duminy, James and Thembi Luckett. 2012. Literature Survey: Mega- Events and the Working Poor, with a Special Reference to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. WIEGO Re- source Document No. 2. Manchester, UK: WIEGO. Published by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) A Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee – Company No. 6273538, Registered Charity No. 1143510 WIEGO Limited 521 Royal Exchange Manchester, M2 7EN United Kingdom www.wiego.org Copyright © WIEGO. This report can be replicated for educational, organizing and policy purposes as long as the source is acknowledged. Cover photograph by: D. Tsoutouras WIEGO Resource Document No 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................1 2. Major Sports Events: Themes, Issues and Impacts .....................................................................3 2.1 Economic, Political and Ideological Issues/Roles of Mega-Events ........................................5 2.2 The Rationale for Hosting Mega-Events ..............................................................................8 2.2.1 In “Peripheral”/Developing Countries ........................................................................10 3. The Impact of Major Sports Events ............................................................................................13 3.1 Urban Policy, Governance and Development .....................................................................14 3.2 Economic Impact ..............................................................................................................20 3.2.1 National/Regional .....................................................................................................21 3.2.2 Urban/Local .............................................................................................................22 3.2.3 Multi-Level Analyses .................................................................................................25 3.2.4 Employment/Income Effects .....................................................................................26 3.2.5 Overestimation of Benefits and Approaches to Economic Impact Assessment ............27 3.3 Social Impact ....................................................................................................................29 3.3.1 Image, Perception, Identity .......................................................................................29 3.3.2 Studies of Local Perceptions .....................................................................................31 3.3.3 Human Rights and Civil Liberties ..............................................................................32 3.3.4 Effects on Street Traders ...........................................................................................37 4. The 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa ............................................................................38 4.1 Politics, Economics and Symbolism of 2010 ......................................................................38 4.2 Possibilities: Image, Policy and Development .....................................................................44 4.3 Predicted Impacts .............................................................................................................48 4.3.1 Economic Effects ......................................................................................................49 4.3.2 Social Effects ............................................................................................................52 4.3.2.1 Evictions and Slum Eradication ........................................................................53 4.3.2.2 Local Perceptions, Expectations and Voices “From Below” ...............................55 4.4 Reported Outcomes ..........................................................................................................57 4.4.1 Economic Outcomes.................................................................................................58 4.4.2 Social Outcomes ......................................................................................................66 4.4.2.1 Image, Perception, Identity ..............................................................................66 4.4.2.2 Nationalism, Nation-Building and Social Cohesion............................................68 4.4.2.3 Human Rights, Civil Liberties and Voices “From Below” ...................................72 5. Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................76 WIEGO Resource Document No 2 1. Introduction Urban and national sports mega-events have become popular research topics in recent years. This trend is partly due to the “paradox”1 of large-scale events and projects. That is, cities and regions are increasingly keen to bid for the “privilege” of hosting megaevents despite evidence that sports show- pieces typically do not generate significant short- to medium-term economic benefit for the host(s). As competition between potential hosts increases, with more money spent on bidding procedures, bigger promises are made regarding the benefits of hosting. More expensive and “‘spectacular” stadiums are being developed in host cities. In South Africa, the 2010 Football World Cup was used to leverage unprecedented levels of public capital for the purposes of infrastructural development and upgrading.2 Clearly, sports mega-events are associated with profound changes in contemporary modes of urban and regional development. Recent evidence shows that they will increasingly domi- nate the agenda of urban and national development policies worldwide. Horne and Manzenreiter (2006) identify three main reasons for “the expansion and growing attrac- tion of mega-events.” Firstly, rapid information and communications technological advancements, particularly the advent of satellite television, have made it possible for huge global audiences to view live sporting events such as the Olympic Games and Football World Cup. This has lead to intense competition between television networks to purchase the broadcasting rights of such events. Pres- ently the total revenue of large sports events is dominated by income generated by the sale of television rights. Secondly, the expansion of mega-events has been promoted by the emergence of an economically powerful ‘sports-media-business’ alliance in the late twentieth century: “Through the idea of packaging, via the tri-partite model of sponsorship rights, exclusive broadcasting rights and merchandizing, sponsors of both the Olympics and the football World Cup events have been attracted by the association with the sports and the vast global audience exposure that the events achieve” (Horne and Manzenreiter 2006:5). Thirdly, cities and regions are increasingly interested in the marketing and imaging benefits of hosting large sports events – an issue which receives greater attention in subsequent sections. Yet as indicated above, despite the apparent expansion and increasing attractiveness of sports mega-events, their actual potential to benefit host cities and countries is highly debatable. Economic analysts of sports mega-events often interpret the recurrent problem of highly “optimistic” pre-event impact assessments as a technical or methodological problem. Hence the recent trend to utilize computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, rather than traditional input-output analyses, for the purposes of event impact assessment. Computable models also tend to give optimistic impact pre- dictions, although to a lesser degree than input-output assessments. However, Bent Flyvbjerg finds 1 This was the term used by Flyvbjerg, B., N. Bruzelius and W. Rothengatter. (2003). Megaprojects and Risk. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Whilst the authors focus their analysis on the relationship between risk and large-scaleninfrastructure projects (especially transport megaprojects), many of their findings and critiques are relevant for sports mega-events. This is true for various reasons, including the fact that large sports events and infrastructure projects areoften closely related: bidding for mega-events typically involves promising to construct or renovate premium infrastructural features (including architecturally-iconic stadiums, public transportation and infor- mation and communication technology facilities). Both mega-events