Mega-events and macro-social change

This chapter outlines a new sociological framework for exploring the deeper and broader contexts of macro-social change in an era of globalisation which are relevant to understanding contemporary mega-events. It suggests that in recent decades Western society in particular has entered a ‘second phase’ in the modernization process marked by changes in the media (i.e. the digital revolution and the rise of the internet), in urbanisation processes (e.g. post-industrial urban regeneration in a context of ecological crisis), and in global geo-politics (i.e. the rise of China and of other ‘emerging’ countries and world regions). On this basis the chapter then indicates how this analysis of macro-social change generally connects with three key sets of changes in and around the world of mega-events in media, urban and global locational aspects of mega-events. These three sets of inter-connected contextual and mega-event changes are explored in further detail in the three main Parts of the book.