Hard Edge of Soft Power

Sven Daniel Wolfe is a political and urban geographer. He is Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione fellow in the Spatial Planning and Urban Policy group at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He works on the planning and impacts of mega-events, with a specific focus on urban sustainable development and everyday geopolitics. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles on mega-events, as well as the monograph More Than Sport (2021, LIT Verlag). He has lectured widely on the problems and potentials of mega-events, to audiences ranging from academics to members of local and national governments, in numerous countries including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

• 1. Introduction: Rationales and foundational concepts - Sven Daniel Wolfe.- 2. Geopolitics and international sporting events in the United Kingdom: Constitutional navel-gazing and the politics of event hosting - Stuart Whigham.- 3. When the stage came down: A short-term feel-good experience at South Africa’s World Cup - Rutendo Musikavanhu.- 4. Behind the golden glow: The soft power, Potemkinism, and protest of Australian mega-events - Max Holleran, Jennifer Minner, and Martin Abbott.- 5. Stepping out of the shadows: The role of pivotal individuals in Qatar’s aspirations to host mega-events - Tobias Zumbraegel and Sebastian Sons.- 6. From “being there is everything” to “go big or go home”? Comparing the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing - Julia Gurol.- 7. The authoritarian legacy: Mega-event security, the managerial-militarized model, and the rise of the far-right in Brazil - Bruno Cardoso and Dennis Pauschinger.- 8. The Eastern European mega-event decade: Sports, geopolitics, and war at the start of the 21st century - Vitaly Kazakov and Dmitrijs Andrejevs.- 9. The Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics: Soft power, sportswashing, and the invasion of Iraq - Jules Boykoff and Reed McFeely.- 10. Conclusion: After the spotlight - Sven Daniel Wolfe.