HOW DO FORMAL AND INFORMAL PRACTICES AND THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STAKEHOLDERS SHAPE THE FORMATION OF HOST EVENT ZONES?

Abstract

Researchers primarily focus on the formal practices used by event organisers to establish temporary spaces like Host Event Zones, characterised as a unilateral process that ignores community interests. Yet little research investigates both the formal and informal interactions between stakeholders. Interviews with London 2012 senior organisers after the ‘fog of organising’ has lifted – and without political pressure to toe-the-line – reveals how two-way dialogue was facilitated through various communicative mechanisms, from ‘road shows’ to more inclusive Olympic Organising Committee meetings. This counters previous arguments and contributes new knowledge by revealing – and more accurately representing - how event zones are co-created through negotiation between the event and community. Consequently, scholars should be wary of extrapolating from formal practices on paper and interrogate the more complex and messy informalities of planning to improve veracity of claim(s).