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The transformation of Beijing as a dual Olympic city: growth, post-growth, and the reimagining of the capital.
- Source :
-
Planning Perspectives . Jun2024, Vol. 39 Issue 3, p575-594. 20p. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- This article employs an Olympic urbanism perspective on the transformation of Beijing's planning and development. For Beijing, holding the Olympic Games was not just about staging the city – and the nation – to the world as commonly understood. It was also about transforming the city through megaprojectification – the use of megaprojects like the Olympic Games to boost urban growth. The 2008 Summer Olympics played a critical role in growing Beijing in terms of the economy, population, fixed assets investment, infrastructure provision, and real estate development. Rapid but ill-planned growth within a decade exacerbated many pre-existing problems of the megacity. In the post-Olympic years, big city syndrome became Beijing's calling card: pollution, congestion, unliveability, and unsustainability. Since then, a post-growth discourse has been emerging, reimagining the capital's future in the context of balanced, coordinated development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. These include the construction of a new city Xiong'an to decentralize Beijing. This post-growth discourse that influenced the 2022 Winter Olympics was a contrast to the growth discourse that had underpinned the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing presents an unusual case of holding two Olympics within a short timeframe but under two contrasting urbanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 02665433
- Volume :
- 39
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Planning Perspectives
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177394848
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2024.2324356