Olympic Exclusions

Olympic Games are sold to host city populations on the basis of legacy commitments that incorporate aid for the young and the poor. Yet little is known about the realities of marginalized young people living in host cities. Do they benefit from social housing and employment opportunities? Or do they fall victim to increased policing and evaporating social assistance? This book answers these questions through an ethnographic study of young people living in the shadow of Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. Setting qualitative research alongside analysis of policy documents, bidding reports and media accounts, it explores the tension between promises made and lived reality.