Failure to adjust
Boston's bid for the 2024 Olympics and the difficulties of learning Olympic wisdom
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4138855 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eva Kassens-Noor (0000-0002-4311-7239, Michigan State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1684-1702 |
| Publication date | 2019-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0308518x19857104 |
| OpenAlex | W2953437603 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 45 |
Local resistance often cancels Olympic bids. Boston's infamous bid failure was one of the first that demonstrated how local resistance can diminish boosters' aspirations. As an insider to the bidding process, I trace the adjustment strategies of Boston's bidding committee, B2024, to bid opposition over the course of Boston's 2024 Olympic bid (2014-2015). I analyze the institutional learning that occurred and find B2024 learned through Olympic networks that won Olympic bids. These Olympic networks failed to learn amidst changing local circumstances and applied old solutions to new problems. While facing four crises, B2024 staff learned the complexities of Olympic bidding in a high-pressure learning environment that did not allow for trial and error. Against anti-Olympic movements, B2024 responded with fire-extinguishing techniques rather than plotting an organized strategy. While bidding, city governments must learn from failed bids to attain Olympic wisdom, which requires mastery of Olympic, counter-Olympic, and local knowledge. Using B2024's learning process, I draw lessons for policy on learning and organizing complex projects with tight timelines and high uncertainty
Bidding · Business · Construction bidding · Economics · Insider · Management · Operations research · Political science · Project management · Timeline · Engineering · History · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society · Marketing
Print Media Framing of the Olympic Games Before Canadian Referendums
Dignity in urban geography
Do projects learn across space and time? Evidence from the Olympics
Assembling urban mega-events
The structural deficit of the Olympics and the World Cup
The Calgary 2026 Olympic Bid Plebiscite as Affective Urbanism
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Planning Olympic Legacies
The Mega-Event Syndrome
Mega-events and socio-spatial dynamics in Rio de Janeiro, 1919-2016
Intentional Systems
Olympic Dreams
No Boston Olympics
Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games
Failed Olympic Bids and the Transformation of Urban Space
The Politics of Crisis Management
Participation in Context
Olympic Transport Legacies
Boston’s Olympic bid and the evolving urban politics of event-led development
Contextualizing Olympic Legacies
The Australian Olympic caravan from 2000 to 2012. A unique Olympic events industry
The Politics of Policy Circulation
Mechanisms of policy failure
Does Temporary Geographical Proximity Predict Learning? Knowledge Dynamics in the Olympic Games
Governing by Looking Back
Not Steering but Drowning
Projects, people, professions
Crisis, learning and policy change in the European Union
Activists in City Hall
Towards a New Typology of Crises
Learning under Uncertainty
Learning under Pressure
Coping with a Self-Induced Shock
The Topological Multiplicities of Power
Bounded Rationality in Policy Learning Amongst Cities
Sustainable Development, Shock and Awe? London 2012 and Civil Society
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |