In the shadow of sport mega-events: A critical analysis of the nexus between evictions, displacements, securitized gentrification and children's rights

Ludvigsen, JL and Byrne, Seamus (2024) In the shadow of sport mega-events: A critical analysis of the nexus between evictions, displacements, securitized gentrification and children's rights. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. ISSN 1012-6902

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Abstract

This paper explores what has been described as the ‘dark side’ of sport mega-events – namely, processes of gentrification and mega-event-induced human evictions and displacements. Whilst researchers have established the regularity of such practices before and during sport mega-events, and that children inevitably are among the displaced, this research has, hitherto, seldom been synthesized within the broader children's rights context. In doing so, this conceptual paper critically examines children's rights issues that arise from Olympic-induced evictions and displacements. We argue that, from a children's rights perspective, the consequences of these practices impact children, young people, and their rights in a much more pervasive and deep-seated manner, affecting multiple children's rights, including their right to housing, education, and the best interests principle. This paper drives forward debates in the social study of sport mega-events, children's rights and urban processes and their social exclusions.