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Constructing Sites _2009

London, Tokyo, and Dubai are cities, which
are important centres in global economic
systems with regards to tourism, finance,
and trade. London and Tokyo are long
established Global Cities whereas Dubai
has aspirations to become one. Quite
commonly, Global Cities host mega events
like the Olympics. All these cities attract
tourism and there is a strong desire to
maintain and develop leisure spaces and
sports facilities that present and publicise
each city as an attractive, well maintained
destination to visitors.

Over the course of the past 30 years the
Olympics have been transformed from a
sporting to an economic event with a focus
on urban regeneration. In the meantime
there is significant disruption of spatial
relationships between residents and their
natural and built environment. Construction
materials are imported from different parts
of world; workers migrating from abroad will
help construct the site.

Open space becomes contested space, local
people can become displaced, dispossessed
of their homes and livelihoods, and be
permanently or temporarily excluded from
spatial developments. There may be an
increase in homelessness. Prices of rent
and transport will go up. Yet individuals
and groups often improvise, appropriate,
and reuse land for leisure and social activities
within cities, providing inhabitants with a new
'sense of location'. This not only includes new
architecture but also could include the
production and construction of new permanent
or temporary social spaces or sites.

Constructing Sites forms part of A Line is
There to be Broken, a curatorial and photography
project that scrutinizes transformations of
'place' and 'space' in cities. This workshop
and seminar is part of the Urban Edge series
at CUCR, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths,
University of London.