Innovation as Identification: A Sociotechnological Critique of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics

• In Event: Global Sports Events as Platforms for Innovation

Abstract

Critical sport scholarship (cf. Gruneau, 1983) warns that sports mega-events can be powerful instruments of social engineering. This critical scholarship is extended through a political, economic and sociotechnological (Bunge, 1998) analysis of ideological influences on technological innovation in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics. These sociotechnological innovations, a product of neoliberal governmentality, supported nationalistic identification in the two host countries. Innovations in technology, from social media to the construction of live sites, were key in London 2012’s successful ‘Nations and Regions’ strategy. During the 2014 Commonwealth Games, however, supporters and detractors of an independent Scotland used 2014-endorsed websites and hashtags to promote their respective positions. By analyzing the political economic roots of games-related sociotechnological innovation and citizen use patterns during these two events, we can better understand the ideological construction of Games-related technology as well as ways in which everyday users can subvert it.

Author

• Christopher Jonathan Finlay, Loyola Marymount U