Though only open for a few weeks or months, mega events permanently and disruptively reshape their host cities and societies: they demolish and rebuild whole districts, they draw in materials and participants from around the globe and their organisers self-consciously seek to leave a legacy that will endure for decades or more. With London as his case study, Jonathan Gardner argues that these spectacles must be seen as long-lived and persistent, rather than simply a transient or short-term phenomena. Using a methodology drawn from the subfield of contemporary archaeology - the archaeology of the recent past and present-day - a broad range of comparative studies are used to explore the long-term history of each event. |