Whose games? The costs of being “Olympic citizens” in Beijing

Hyun Bang Shin; Bingqin Li

doi:10.1177/0956247813501139

Whose games? The costs of being “Olympic citizens” in Beijing

Hyun Bang Shin
1. Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
Bingqin Li
1. Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Abstract

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games tend to be accompanied by copious media coverage of the negative social impacts of these events, and people in the affected areas are often thought to share similar experiences. The research in this paper, which focused on the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008, unpacks the heterogeneous groups in a particular sector of the housing market to gain a better understanding of how the Games affected different resident groups. The paper critically examines the experience of migrant tenants and Beijing citizens (landlords in particular) in “villages-in-the-city” (known as cheongzhongcun), drawing on their first-hand accounts of the citywide preparations for the Games and the pervasive demolition threats to their neighbourhoods. The paper argues that the Beijing Summer Olympiad produced an uneven, often exclusionary, Games experience for a certain segment of the urban population.

Article Notes

Hyun Bang Shin is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research includes the critical analysis of the political economic dynamics of urban development, with particular attention to cities in East Asia. His recent writings include urban redevelopment and displacement, housing, the right to the city, state entrepreneurialism, and cities of spectacle and mega-events.

Address: Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK; e-mail: H.B.Shin{at}lse.ac.uk.
Bingqin Li is an Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. She gained a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and taught in their Social Policy Department before moving to Australia. Her current research interests include housing and urbanization, urban governance, social policy reform and development more broadly. Much of her work focuses on China or Asia.

Address: Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Building 132, Lennox Crossing, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; e-mail: bingqin.li{at}anu.edu.au.