Mega Events and Urban Memory

Dear Colleagues,

Cities represent the places where humans carry on their activities, with urbanization as a process characterizing the 21st century. Big events are therefore also taking place in cities: if on one side this phenomenon had a massive impulse from the 19th century, on the other side its origins are well-rooted in ancient times. Mega events in cities are relatively recent. We can in fact recall the Expos and the Modern Olympic Games from the end of the 19th century, together with the FIFA World Cup from the first half of the 20th Century, while games in stadiums in ancient Rome and Olympics in Greece date back many centuries, with similar aims of entertaining, amazing, resolving social, economic, and political issues.? Mega Events, as phenomena taking place in a limited amount of time and space, are tightly linked to cities (as the European city of culture and sport), often proposing temporary structures, solutions, and opportunities for gathering and exchanging ideas and knowledge. However, often temporariness has transformed into persistency: The Eiffel Tower in Paris and Jeff Koons’ Puppy in Bilbao are just two examples (respectively at the beginning and end of the 20th century) of temporary landmarks becoming permanent ones. In a broader sense, Mega Events deal also with massive and disruptive occasions, as epidemics, wars, natural and socio-economic disasters. The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is one example of that, posing threats and challenges to cities and on how we will deal with the physical fabrics and immaterial elements of urban spaces.

This Special Issue descends from that background, and a set of questions arise, covering all the different realms of study dealing with cities: from geography to planning, from sociology to economics and business, from anthropology to ecology, and from philosophy to mathematics and physics. What are the relics of past mega events in cities? How they did survive? Did they change the use and perception of cities? What are mega events now? Is there still a place for them in urban areas? How does temporary become permanent, and permanent temporary? This Special Issue is intended for scholars and practitioners willing to exchange ideas and experiences on case studies or on theoretical and methodological issues addressing the impacts and challenges of mega events on cities.

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Borruso
Prof. Dr. Ginevra Balletto
Prof. Dr. Maurizio Carta
Prof. Dr. Beniamino Murgante
Prof. Dr. Carmelo Torre
Guest Editors

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• cities
• mega events
• urban planning
• regional planning
• urban memory
• architecture for exhibitions
• architecture urban regeneration
• impact assessment of mega events: gentrification
• sports districts
• cost benefit analysis
• value creation
• capital budgeting
• urban mobility
• pandemics
• covid-19
• coronavirus
• resilience