SPORT MEGA-EVENTS FROM BID TO LEGACY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: A SPORT DIPLOMACY AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PHENOMENOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study explores how sport mega-events in the Global South can be transformed from temporary spectacles into lasting and meaningful places. It operationalizes sport diplomacy and urban development in the sport management mega-event cycle. The research addresses the gap in the literature by emphasizing the bidding phase, which is often neglected despite being a decisive stage in shaping whether legacy becomes durable and locally relevant. Drawing on concepts of place, memory, and lived urban experience from Critical Theory in Architecture and phenomenology, the study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design to develop a framework and apply it to five sport mega-events in the Global South. The events are the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The thesis examines how host nations strategically use each stage of the bid-to-legacy lifecycle to shape outcomes and long-term impacts. At the same time, a phenomenological approach provides a human-centered perspective for evaluating whether the sport diplomacy tools and urban transformations associated with mega-events create meaningful post-event places shaped by memory and identity. Based on this analysis, the thesis develops a Sport Diplomacy and Urban Development Integration Framework for the full mega-event lifecycle, from diagnosis and bidding to preparation, event delivery, and legacy. The central contribution of the framework is to operationalize sixteen analytical dimensions. It argues that substantial legacy depends on the convergence of the dimensions of time, space, and place. In this study, time refers to diplomatic narrative, space to urban development, and place to the lived human-centered experience. The thesis concludes that mega-event legacies in the Global South are more likely to have positive results and respond to local realities when previous sport diplomacy narratives are aligned with context-sensitive urban development strategies to provide embedded meaning by the lived experience to the infrastructure of the sport spectacle.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Science and Engineering