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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

‘Résistance Olympique’: The Urban Impact of Paris 2024 through the Lens of Local Opposition Groups

Gustavo Lopes dos Santos
  • Fonction : Auteur
Alexia Gignon
Marie Delaplace

Résumé

The next Olympic Games will be hosted in the French capital, Paris, and in some of its neighbouring municipalities. The social context in which this event’s edition will be held is unique for a few reasons. First, these Olympics will be the first to fully benefit from the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, which is a policy adopted by the International Olympic Committee in 2014 to, among others, enhance the urban sustainability of the Games and respond to the public and political opposition against the event that, over the last decade, was responsible for the withdrawn of several bids of cities willing to host it. Second, because of the worldwide context set by the pandemic and energy crises that largely influenced and changed this edition’s plans, increasing budgets and, consequently, opportunity costs that further contributed to the intensification of the event’s overall public disapproval. Third, because of the expectation put in this edition regarding sustainability promises made by event organisers and hosts, not only associated with Olympic Agenda 2020, but also concerning other commitments to align the event with the needs and priorities of modern societies, namely of an environmental and social nature. Fourth, because even though many competitions will be held in existing and temporary facilities in Paris, most of the planned urban interventions are being carried out in the neighbouring department of Seine-Saint-Denis, where Stade de France is located, which is the poorest department in France and faces several socio-economic problems and challenges. In Seine-Saint-Denis, the most relevant residential urban projects being carried out concern the construction of the Olympic and Media Villages. Additionally, other transport infrastructure projects are being implemented in association with the Games, like planned expansions of the metro network, or the reorganisation of the traffic flows in the Pleyel Interchange. Furthermore, some sports facilities are also being built or refurbished but, with the exception of the Aquatics Centre, they are mainly small sports centres with local catchment areas. Individually, these projects have their unique characteristics and functions but, together, they constitute a strategy to transform the city, carrying the potential to provoke a deep change in urban and social structures and leave a legacy to the population. However, these theoretical benefits are not unanimously well received by local populations. Many of these projects have been facing public opposition, triggering the informal establishment of a few civic groups, each of them opposing specific interventions. Collectively, they represent a union that fights against the hosting of the Games, going along with the existing worldwide anti-Olympic movement. We focus on the claims of these civic groups and on how they are impacted by these interventions, analysing their influence in changes of plans either through participatory processes or legal court appeals. Over more than one year, we conducted several interviews with all these opposition groups, event organisers and responsible governmental entities. We also participated in several private meetings and public demonstrations organised by opposition groups, as well as in public consultation sessions held by event organisers and governmental bodies. Furthermore, throughout time we accompanied the evolution of the urban projects in all places that constitute the core of these conflicts by conducting several self-organised field visits and participating in tours organised by agencies responsible for the respective construction works. In this research, we analyse how these civic groups are structured and organised and what are their struggles, objectives, strategies and difficulties. We conclude on how these conflicts impact both the local communities and the event planning/delivery. We briefly compare our conclusions with similar research being conducted for the case study of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Dates et versions

hal-04169307 , version 1 (24-07-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04169307 , version 1

Citer

Gustavo Lopes dos Santos, Alexia Gignon, Marie Delaplace. ‘Résistance Olympique’: The Urban Impact of Paris 2024 through the Lens of Local Opposition Groups. 35e colloque international AESOP, Université de Lodz, Jul 2023, Lodz (Poland), Poland. ⟨hal-04169307⟩
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