Open AccessRegulatory Informality Across Olympic Event Zones
Author(s) -
Lewis Walsh,
Simon Down,
Michael B. Duignan
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
event management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.46
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1943-4308
pISSN - 1525-9951
DOI - 10.3727/152599521x16192004803520
Subject(s) - formality , event (particle physics) , action (physics) , interview , sociology , public relations , collective action , balance (ability) , host (biology) , political science , law , politics , psychology , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology
Olympic event zones are characterised as being intensely formally regulated during live staging periods, producing exclusionary environments blamed for side-lining host community interests. Yet, our findings contradict what scholars perceive to be inflexible formal regulations, and, the regulator’s ability to take informal action. By interviewing and drawing on the experience of 17 regulators during London 2012 we identify how regulators simultaneously oscillate between modes of regulatory formality and informality, straddling what is referred to as the ‘formality-informality span’. Our application and theorisation of these concepts critiques existing explanations of how regulation is enacted in mega-sporting events, providing new insights into the way organisers balance regulatory demands and potentially opening up new emancipatory policies and more equitable outcomes for host communities.