“Clean-up!” – the politics of mega-event planning in Nur-Sultan (Astana)

“And what will happen during the EXPO?!” – angrily asked his government the first president of Kazakhstan when presenting photographic evidence of “problematic areas” few months before the Astana EXPO 2017. While discussing the preparatory works for this mega-event Nazarbayev hinted that tourists coming to the capital will see and show the “rest of the world” various semi-formal settlements remaining in the capital. He gave the order – “clean it up!”.

Hosting mega-events has become vital tool of urban branding. Consequently, city governments target those who do not fit in the official image of the host city. Various forms of violent measures are realized leading to demolitions, evictions and other forms of exclusion to turn unwanted groups invisible.

The number of mega-event host cities has increased and diversified. However, this change is seldom reflected in the mega-event research that needs expanding its geographic boundaries of the empirical knowledge. This work contributes to bridging the existing gap with the case study of exclusionary politics for and by the EXPO 2017. It explores the strategies enforced by the Kazakhstan government for the promotion of state brand of Astana through mega-event, who are the main actors and who are the “unwanted”. The presentation offers the first findings and thoughts from the fieldwork carried out in Kazakhstan during the spring of 2019.

Le « Trait d’Urbain » est un séminaire proposé par le groupe de recherche en Études urbaines afin de permettre aux chercheuses et chercheurs de présenter leurs travaux en cours.

L'entrée est libre.