Approaching paradox: Loving and hating mega-events

This paper examines the role of paradoxes in research and proposes strategies of engaging with them. For this purpose, it analyses the ways in which six paradoxes are constitutive of sports mega-events such as the Olympic Games: the universalism paradox, the compliance paradox, the winner’s paradox, the participation paradox, the uniqueness paradox and the passion paradox. It then develops three strategies of how researchers and practitioners can approach paradox. The first, exploration, examines the consequences and effects of the ambiguity of paradoxes. The second, differentiation, enquires into the spatio-temporal and social make-up of paradoxes. The third, reframing, recasts paradoxes by shifting theoretical perspectives. Instead of pressing to resolve paradoxes, researchers and practitioners alike should make productive use of their ambiguity. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.003 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-138511 Veröffentlichte Version Originally published at: Müller, Martin (2017). Approaching paradox: Loving and hating mega-events. Tourism Management, 63:234-241. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.003 Approaching paradox: Loving and hating mega-events Martin Müller a, b, c, * a Institut de G eographie et Durabilit e, Universit e de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland b Geographisches Institut, Universit€ at Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland c Center for Global Urbanism, Ural Federal University, 51 Lenin Ave, 620142 Ekaterinburg, Russia h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t Tourism is predicated on paradoxes. Six key paradoxes constitute megaevents as expressions of modernity. There are 3 strategies to approach paradoxes: exploration, differentia-