Olympic Industry Resistance

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

Description

Scholar and activist Helen Jefferson Lenskyj continues her critique of the Olympic industry, looking specifically at developments in the post-9/11 and postbribery scandal era. Examining events and activism in host cities, as well as in several locations that bid unsuccessfully on the Olympics, Lenskyj shows how basic rights and freedoms, particularly of the press and of assembly, are compromised. Lenskyj investigates the pro-Olympic bias in media treatment of bids and preparations, the "fallen hero" phenomenon that includes doping and female athletes who pose nude in calendars, and takes issue with "Olympic education" curricular materials for schoolchildren. Also discussed are the problems of housing and homelessness created when the Olympics become a catalyst for urban redevelopment projects.

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction and Background

PART I. Olympic Impacts and Community Resistance

2. Rights and Freedoms under Threat

3. Olympic Impacts on Bid and Host Cities

4. Canadian Olympic Wins and Losses

PART II. Olympic Education

5. Education through (Olympic) Sport: Making Connections

6. Olympic Education Inc.: Colonizing Children’s Minds?

7. More Fallen Heroes? The Nude Calendar Phenomenon

8. Social Responsibility: A Fourth Pillar of the “Olympic Movement”?

Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Sport
• Autour du sport
• Jeux Olympiques
• Jeux olympiques
• Sociology
• Popular culture

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791478110
• Langue: English

Extrait

OLYMPIC INDUSTRY RESISTANCE Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda

H E L E N J E F F E R S O N L E N S K Y J

Olympic Industry Resistance

SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations CL Cole and Michael A. Messner, editors

Olympic Industry Resistance

Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Lenskyj, Helen Olympic industry resistance : challenging Olympic power and propaganda / Helen Jefferson Lenskyj. p. cm. — (SUNY series on sport, culture, and social relations) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–7914–7479–2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–7914–7480–8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Olympics—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Olympics—Social aspects. 3. Mass media and sports. I. Title

GV721.6.L42 2008 796.48—dc22

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Rights and Freedoms under Threat

Olympic Education Inc.: Colonizing Children’s Minds?

Chapter 7.

PART II. Olympic Education

Social Responsibility: A Fourth Pillar of the “Olympic Movement”?

149

PART I. Olympic Impacts and Community Resistance

Contents

Introduction and Background

Olympic Impacts on Bid and Host Cities

129

77

113

Education through (Olympic) Sport: Making Connections

More Fallen Heroes? The Nude Calendar Phenomenon

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1.

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vii

Bibliography

Chapter 8.

Index

Canadian Olympic Wins and Losses

31

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175

153

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Chapter 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 6.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 2.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues in Olympic watchdog groups in Toronto, Vancouver, and Sydney for ongoing help and support in this venture. I hope that my book brings them the recog nition and respect that they deserve for their hard work and commitment to social justice. Once again, the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, provided me with a supportive academic home. Thanks to Linda Fuller for comments on the original version of chapter 7, and to anonymous reviewers for feedback on earlier versions of content that appears in chap ters 2, 3, and 4. State University of New York Press acquisitions editor Nancy Ellegate, Director of Production Marilyn Semerad, and their staff brought the project to completion in a timely and professional manner, and my partner Liz Green did her usual careful proofreading. Shane Korytko provided the perfect cover photograph. I am most grateful to all of you. Finally, thanks to Liz and to my children for their love and encouragement. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 include substantially revised excerpts from these previously published works: The Olympic (Affordable) Housing Legacy and Social Responsibility. In N. Crowther, R. Barney and M. Heine, Eds.,Cultural Imperialism in Action: Critiques in the Global Olympic Trust.Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium for Olympic Research. London: University of Western Ontario, 2006, 191–99. The Olympic Industry and Civil Liberties: The Threat to Free Speech and Freedom of Assembly.Sport in Society7:3, 2004, 370–384. Making the world safe for global capital: The Sydney 2000 Olympics and Beyond. In J. Bale and M. Christensen, Eds.,Post Olympism? Questioning Sport in the Twentyfirst Century. London: Berg, 2004, 13545.

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Acknowledgments

Alternative media versus the Olympic industry. In A. Raney and J. Bryant, Eds.,Handbook of Sports and Media.Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2006, 205–16. Chapter 6 includes a revised version of the following: Olympic Education Inc.: Colonizing Children’s Minds? In K. Wamsley et al., Eds.,Cultural Relations Old and New: The Transitory Olympic Ethos.Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium for Olympic Research. London: University of Western Ontario, 2004, 151–58.

Cover Photo: AntiPoverty Committee occupation of the vacant North Star Hotel in resistance to the rapid gentrification of Vancouver’s downtown east side prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Photographer: Shane Korytko, October 2006.

1 Chapter

Introduction and Background

t is now several years since I completed the research for my last Olympic I book,The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000(2002), and a critical update of the politics of Olympic bids and preparations in the postbribery and post–September 11 era is long overdue. InThe Best Olympics Ever?and in my earlier book,Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism(2000), I examined the threat posed by the Olympics to the basic civil rights and freedoms of residents in bid and host cities, most notably, the right to a free press and freedom of assembly, as well as the criminalizing of poverty and the housing and homelessness problems that have been associated with hosting the Olympics. I also documented the work of antiOlympic and Olympic watchdog groups in the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere as they challenged the Olympic industry and worked toward mitigating negative social and environmental impacts (Lenskyj, 2000, chapters 4, 6, 7; 2002, chapter 7). Since 1998, the Western world has been the target of a largely suc cessful public relations campaign sponsored by the Olympic industry. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as organizing committees in Salt Lake City, Athens, Torino, Beijing, Vancouver, and London, and numerous bid committees around the globe, have dedicated their efforts to restoring the Olympic image after the damaging bribery scandals that I analyzed inInside the Olympic Industry(chapters 1–3). As I explained in my earlier work, I use the term Olympicindustry to draw attention to the characteristics it shares with other global corpo rations, many of which are Olympic sponsors. In doing so, I challenge the uncritical use of benignsounding terms such asOlympic movement, Olympic family,andOlympic spirit—which promote mystique and elitism,

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