Podcast blurb: Sports mega-events emerged in an era of European militarization and colonial expansion. The ideals of the Olympic Games are predicated on sublimated warfare between nations - a global race for scarce resources (medals/metals). The vested interests that coalesce around the production and consumption of mega-events are integral to the workings of global capitalism. Thus, mega-events are apt lenses to observe the workings of geopolitics, local politics, and capitalism in all its variegated manifestations. The realpolitick of mega-events offers a viewpoint from which we can see the intersections of elite sport, urbanization, cultural identities, and the shifting balance of global political power. In this interview, Gaffney explores all of these themes, calling for an end to mega-events as they are inherently extractive and damaging to life.

Chris’s bio: Christopher Gaffney is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Tisch Center for Hospitality in the School of Professional Studies at New York University. A Vermont-born, Texas-trained geographer, Gaffney has taught in Taiwan, Brazil, Switzerland, and at several universities the United States. His earlier work focused on the intersection of urban studies and sports mega-events. Gaffney´s 2008 monograph, Temples of the Earthbound Gods, explored the interdigitation of urban development and sporting cultures in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Gaffney served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Latin American Geography from 2014-2018, guiding the journal´s award-winning transformation. Gaffney has appeared in a slew of documentary films and is often quoted in the world´s leading media outlets. Gaffney ran an influential blog in the lead up to the 2016 Olympics, Hunting White Elephants, and has written extensively on the impacts and realpolitik of sports mega-events across numerous formats. Prior to joining NYU in 2018, Gaffney was the Project Manager for Team Rubicon's disaster relief efforts in post-Maria Puerto Rico.

Further reading and resources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-politics-has-changed-modern-day-sports-9945631/

https://nupoliticalreview.org/2019/02/26/politics-and-sports-a-long-and-complicated-relationship/

https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/environment-and-society/10/1/ares100104.xml

https://olympics.com/ioc/members

Jules Boykoff: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/634757.Jules_Boykoff