Legacies of Turin 2006 eight years on: Theories on territorialisation in the aftermath of the Olympic Games

Over the last twenty years the critical debate on mega-events has increased significantly (Girginov, 2013; Gold and Gold, 2011; Lenskyj and Wagg, 2012): mega-events have become a popular object of research in urban and regional studies. However, not all research reflects adequately on theoretical studies. The growing interest comes from the acknowledgment, perhaps too often uncritically, of a positive role of mega-events in urban and territorial policies, as catalysts and accelerators of urban change and renewal (Essex and Chalkley, 1998). This potentially positive expectation stems from the study of success stories celebrated at international level, to the extent of imposing themselves as “good practices”. In fact, the organizers regularly attempt to overstate the positive impact and underrate the negative effects (Sandy et al, 2004), even if there is a large series of failures and behind the “lights” of the success stories more than a few shadows are hidden, related to gentrification, social exclusion and displacement, environmental destruction, conflicts (Cashman, 2010; Dansero et al., 2011; Essex and Chalkley, 2004; Hayes and Karamichas, 2011; Hiller, 2000; Lenskyj, 2002; Spilling, 1998) and “with huge sunk costs” (Davidson and McNeill, 2012, p. 1626). Among many issues addressed, this chapter intends to propose a reflection about the territorialisation of the Olympic Games, as a moment of outstanding production of territory, à la Raffestin, at different scales and in symbolic, physical and organizational terms. This perspective allows, in our opinion, a more complex view of the mega-event with regard to the dynamics and the policies of the host cities and regions, supporting the critical reflection of the idea of “planning legacy”. In assessing the Olympic legacy, if the immediate effects represent a field already known and studied, then it becomes crucial to take into account those variables, in terms of territorialisation, that might take place over the following years. When in 2006 the XX Olympic Winter Games came to Turin this event was used to give a further and decisive thrust to the city’s Post-fordist transition. Turin, eight years on from its Olympics, is an interesting field for understanding the long-term impacts (legacies) on local territories and environments, with special attention to the different scales involved: on the one hand the city - Turin and its metropolitan area - and on the other the mountains - the Alps. From this point of view, the beginning of the global economic crisis for Turin has represented and is still representing a break in the urban development thereby implying that local/global relationships need to be reconsidered. This chapter is organized as follows: the first section presents some reflections on the mega-event as a process of territorialisation, seen as “production of territory”. The following four sections concern the case study - the Turin Olympic Winter Games - through some specific issues: the new geography between the city and the mountains, the territorialisation process and the legacy for the city, the change of the city image, the legacy following the global economic crisis. The chapter concludes with further reflections on the relationship between the Olympic territorialisation and the new geopolitical trend for hosting mega-events.