Re-thinking the Legacy 2012: The Olympics as commodity and gift

Abstract

First paragraph: In 2007, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published the following ‘5 legacy promises’. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games aim to do the following: • To make the UK a world-class sporting nation, in terms of elite success, mass participation and school sport. • To transform the heart of East London. • To inspire a new generation of young people to take part in local volunteering, cultural and physical activity. • To make the Olympic Park a blueprint for sustainable living. • To demonstrate that the UK is a creative, inclusive and welcoming place to live in, to visit and for business. These promises underpin a more detailed document forming a part of the UK government's ‘Legacy action plan’ (DCMS, 2008). Each promise serves as a ‘headline’ for a programme of projected events and initiatives. Notwithstanding the content of the outline plan there are indignant voices which argue that this is where serious commitment ends: as mere headlines. Critics proffer an understanding of ‘legacy-talk’ as a smokescreen for wasteful and opportunistic expenditures on a ‘white elephant’ mega-event—and little else.1 Even Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell acknowledges that ‘legacy’ has become something of a watchword. However, Jowell's counter-suggestion is that there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity ‘to turn the rhetoric of Olympic legacy into fact’. The DCMS action plan document purports to be a key to the delivery of these legacy outcomes (DCMS, 2008, p. 2).