London 2012 to Paris 2024: How important is social legacy at major international events?

The term legacy means many different things, in the events context it has been used to describe the positive (and negative), planned (and unplanned), tangible (and intangible) impacts an event can leave behind.

In this public lecture, delivered in September 2024, we go on a journey from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to the hosting of Paris Games this summer to critically think about the legacies of major international events.

For over a decade, Verity Postlethwaite has developed research on the understandings and governance of legacy, with a focus on how communities in the UK and Japan have used the hosting of events as a catalyst for social change. She shares some of her experiences and research to raise important debates and ongoing questions around the value of events and the value of using the term legacy.

Verity Postlethwaite is a Vice-Chancellor Independent Research Fellow in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences. Verity’s research is broadly focused on international sport events with a particular interest in how sport and other cultural entities have been used in local, national, and international contexts to govern society. Her research activities are connected to an established international network of governing actors related to a variety of organisations, where strategies and programmes include engagement with inclusion, placemaking, sport and cultural policy, and sport diplomacy. Verity has recently been part of two edited book projects as a co-editor, Handbook of Sport and Japan (AUP, 2024) and The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Politics, Representation and Management (Routledge, 2023). And is in the midst of a Learning Partnership project with Spirit of 2012 co-creating a digital learning resource around inclusion and disability.

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