The social impacts of collaboration between Paris 2024 organizing committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and its satellite host cities in Ile-de-France
Résumé
As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been systematically allowing their events to go beyond one host city concept, there is a need to study the legacy across those territories such as the upcoming case of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (POPG). Therefore the purpose of our research is to study the social legacy of POPG by all host locations in Ile-de-France region (Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint Ouen, L’Ile-Saint-Denis, Le Bourget, La Courneuve, Dugny, Nanterre, Colombes, Versailles, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Vaires-sur-Marnes).
This study is of exploratory nature to develop different typologies of collaboration that exist between the host locations. The legacy outcomes of Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games and its satellite host organizing committees (Hoff et al., 2020) as well as the collaboration outcomes of co-hosting between multiple countries (Mukanova, 2023) will be used to frame our results.
The hypotheses of our study are the following:
- The organization of the Games will have a positive impact in terms of collaboration between satellite host cities.
- The preparation of this mega-event creates a desire to collaborate between satellite host cities.
- Rivalries may arise between actors.
This research is based on a qualitative methodological approach which includes semi-structured interviews with the representatives of host locations of the POPG in the Ile-de-France region. It also includes event planning documents from the City of Paris, the POPG organising committee and satellite host cities.
The preliminary results show that the relationships between the actors and their collaboration depend on their work themes (e.g. accessibility, transport, international delegation hosting). Collaboration tends to take place within the same organization (e.g. sport division with POPG division and/or cultural division from Seine-Saint-Denis department) or between organizations in the same location (e.g. the intermunicipality of Plaine Commune with the townhall of Saint-Denis) rather than with those of neighbouring host locations. Collaboration is easier where several satellite host cities are located in the same area (such as the different towns in Seine-Saint-Denis). However, despite the desire to collaborate at the start of the preparation for the Games between Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, many of these types of collaboration have not seen the light due to a change in priorities for these actors (e.g. health crisis, competition venue change). As a result, exchanges between the main host city and satellite host cities are less frequent, and low levels of action are observed, despite the good levels of understanding between these territories.