The emergence of social sustainability in the development of Olympic parks: the case of Sydney Olympic Park

Since the publication of The Brundtland Report (1987), the debate sustainable developmentadvanced to include environmental policies relating to the hard and soft sciences in variousbuilt-environment professions. However, despite the accomplishments of The BruntlandReport, a global sustainable society remains an elusive idea and begs another level of enquiry—the social. This thesis questions how and to what extent social sustainability emerges in thedevelopment of Sydney Olympic Park (SOP), considered a representative case of urbanspectacle for the global city.The research established an analytical framework to investigate how the principles of socialsustainability—local empowerment, identity and community—were considered in the longtermdevelopment of SOP: conceptualising the new visions introduced in the bid for the2000 Olympic Games; developing the site for Games; managing the site in the post-2000years; and living adjacent to SOP. These phases are defined as dreaming, delivering,defending, and dwelling. Primary data from in-depth interviews with urban planners anddecision-makers involved with the development of SOP, and from focus groups withresidents of the local neighbouring Newington and Wentworth Point areas, werecomplemented with data from archival document analysis and literature review. Findingsshow that the global city idea, predominant in the phases of dreaming, delivering anddefending SOP, framed the environmental and emerging social sustainability initiativesthrough a narrative of place competitiveness. This led to defending SOP’s facilities of theparklands, sports and entertainment park, and business park, primarily for regional andinternal communities. The limited involvement of local dwellers in strategies forempowerment has been detrimental to their association with the sustainability identity ofSOP and their inclusion as part of SOP’s community. This is playing a toll on how SOP isdeveloping as a more democratic, meaningful and connected place locally, jeopardising itssocial sustainability