Résonnances oasiennes. Approches sensibles de l’urbain au Sahara [Resonances from the Oases. Sensitive approaches to the urban in the Sahara]

Abstract

land and its conversion into a dynamic and thriving new core for London. Importantly, landscape transformation is seen as the key to project justification. So, why the difference in tone as well as content? Part of the reason stems from narrative. The Olympics, and most things connected with them, are habitually enmeshed in powerful narratives, with proponents and critics of the Games trading diametrically opposed views legitimized by contrasting metanarratives of historical meaning and current worth. However, an additional factor in the case of London 2012 are the starting points taken for analysis. Judgments about legacy made when the starting point is 1980 might well be different than when analysis begins with the bid promises of the early twenty-first century. Relatively few academic researchers would have been personally familiar with the lower Lea Valley before the clearance and soil cleansing programme started; an element that perhaps underpins a current tendency to downplay the extent of the area’s blighted industrial past. By contrast, many of the planning practitioners had witnessed the profound dereliction that characterized the area in the late twentieth century and took it as part of their moral imperative for working to bring about change. The state of the landscape, the blocked watercourses, and the environmental contamination were essential parts of the rationale for the legacy that was to be created. Yet in many ways, the divergences in these accounts essentially reflect the state of the art. The historiography of London 2012 as well as its legacy remain at a formative stage, with many different voices supporting and contesting prevailing interpretations. Excellent in their own ways and offering consistent and substantiated viewpoints, State of the Legacy and Play the Game provide useful contributions towards improving our understanding of the urban legacy of this landmark sporting and cultural festival. As such, they are steps on the road towards formulating the other, more subtly textured tales that are yet to be told.