This book evaluates why cities choose to bid for the Olympics, why Olympic bids fail, and whether cities can benefit from failed bids. Attention is shifted away from host cities (or winners), to consider the impact of the bidding process on urban development in losing cities. Oliver and Lauermann show that bidding is often a politically strategic exercise, as planning ideas are recycled from one bid project to the next. As Olympic bids become more deeply embedded in urban development and bid teams engage in legacy planning, Oliver and Lauermann demonstrate that bid failure is rarely definitive and is often a desirable result. This volume adds a new and innovative perspective to Olympic Studies and mega-events more broadly, with appeal to a variety of other disciplines including geography, urban planning, spatial politics and sport and civic policy.

This book contributes to debates in geography and urban studies by analysing the spatial dimensions and politics of urban policy failure. Attention is most often paid to successful urban policies. Policymakers go to great lengths to emulate success by importing policy 'models', implementing best practices, or pursuing 'silver bullet' solutions. Yet, stories of failure are at least as common as those of success. Some policies fail to launch in the first place. Others struggle to deliver their goals. Many collapse under the weight of poor administration, insufficient funding, or political opposition. This book establishes a vocabulary and set of analytical approaches for researching the spatial dynamics and impacts of urban policy failure. With a geographically diverse set of cases, the authors explore topics including policy (im)mobility, urban policy experiments, and governance initiatives ranging from sustainability to housing to public health, across Europe, North America, and Asia. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Urban Geography.