Large-scale events: the beautification of an apparent utopia

Abstract

The mechanism behind nation's development and sustainability has evolved and received lots of attention latterly, and almost everything entitled with a source on which it is possible to capitalize on, without affecting the social, environmental and governmental aspects, is going through a commodification. To qualify the phenomenon Karl Marx used the expression «fetishism» of commodities; or respectively for Ricardo and Smith, a way to retain or to gain new forms of comparative advantage or absolute advantage. Moreover, capitalism enhanced many areas such as technology, lifestyle and health via the supply and demand of goods from one country to another, but the involvement of politics, via elite powers has sometimes led to monopoly capitalism and some flaws, engendering economic issues and social inequalities, therefore altering the process of sustainable development. However, some powers with the aim to stand at the prestigious seat of developed countries or for some ideologies, are willing to undertake any initiatives for the quest of such utopia. These initiatives are numerous and can take any form, either via the political, sociocultural, economic, technological or environmental facets; thus from those perspectives large-scale events are often seen as a good platform for exhibition encompassing all of the previously cited facets. Therefore, following the same lens, without giving a detailed discourse or undertaking a dialectical method on the notions of capitalism, economy, fetishism or other concepts, I plan in this paper to highlight the foggy side of sportive large-scale events, with Russia as an example in that they will host the next edition of the FIFA World Cup 2018; and the reasons behind the attempt by large-scale promoters to beautify their legacy that, in many cases, I consider to be a dystopia.