To adequately capture the cross-cutting nature of major sports events, our multi-disciplinary team who will examine the sustainability of major events along four thematic axes:
| Cities & Environment: Martin Müller (Lead PI) David Gogishvili (Senior Researcher) Andrea Arcidiacono (Research Partner) | Governance & Performance: Markus Lang (PI) Shreyya Rajagopal (Doctoral Student) Matheson Victor (Research Partner) |
| Integrity & Human Rights: Stefano Caneppele (PI) Ioannis Konstantopoulos (Junior Researcher) David McGillivray (Research Partner) | Media & Diversity: Lucie Schoch (PI) Léonie Brodmann (Doctoral Student) Ann Pegoraro (Research Partner) |
The project stands to reorient debates in sports research and event studies through providing systematic, longitudinal knowledge on the sustainability of the sports events sector over the past 30 years. Creating and sharing an unprecedented database, it will pioneer a novel method and knowledge base for the field that future researchers can use. The policy outcome will be the establishment of the Lausanne Observatory of Major Events (LOME), which will draw on the new database to monitor and benchmark future events, encourage greater sustainability, and provide an independent source of information for event organisers, policy-makers, journalists and citizens.
Team members
LUCIE SCHOCH (Principal Investigator)
Lucie Schoch works as a senior lecturer at the Department of sport sciences of the University of Lausanne since 2016. As a sociologist, her research interests lie in two main areas, “sport and media” and “sport and gender”, which often intersect in her research projects. She is currently leading a project founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, focusing on gender diversity in the governance of international sports federations (2020-2024). Lucie Schoch has published works in English in renowned journals such as International Review for the Sociology of sport, Sociology of sport journal, Media Culture & Society, Journalism practice, and Communication & Sport, as well as in French journals. She serves on the editorial boards of Communication & Sport and International Journal of Sport & Communication. Lucie is also a board member of the Incubator of the Global Observatory for gender equality & sport , put in place in Lausanne in 2021 in partnership with UNESCO.
Email: lucie.schoch@unil.ch
Links: University of Lausanne profile | Researchgate
MARKUS LANG (Principal Investigator)
Markus Lang holds the position of Professor of Sports Economics at the Institute of Sport Sciences at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He also serves as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Sports Research (CIRS), providing him with a robust network of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners engaged in sports research. Focused on the governance, regulation, and performance of professional sports, he utilizes both theoretical and empirical methods that has resulted in publications across diverse fields such as economics, management, law, and operations research. He has contributed to four Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) projects. Beyond his academic pursuits, Markus Lang has practical experience as a co-founder and project manager of a startup company, where he successfully led a team of 15 people. Thematic competence: governance, regulation and performance of professional sports, industrial organisation, game theory, organization theory & design. Methodological competence: microeconomic analysis, econometric analysis, inferential statistics, data management.
Email: markus.lang@:unil.ch
Links: University of Lausanne profile | Google Scholar | Linkedin
MARTIN MÜLLER (Lead Principal Investigator)
Martin Müller is a professor of human geography in the Department of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is an urban and political geographer analysing how cities seek to become not just rich but also sexy. For this, he examines large urban spectacles, such as the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup, and cultural flagship buildings, such as new museums and concert halls. He is particularly interested in the economic, ecological and social (un)sustainability of mega-events. With his team, he has established the world’s largest database on the size, narratives and outcomes of mega-events since 1960, which is open for use and collaboration. His most influential publications include ‘An evaluation of the sustainability of the Olympic Games’ (Nature Sustainability) and ‘Peak event’ (Tourism Management). His work has cited in the The Economist, New York Times, BBC, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NZZ and other international news media.
Email: martin.muller@unil.ch
Links: University of Lausanne profile | Google Scholar | Linkedin
STEFANO CANEPPELE (Principal Investigator)
Stefano Caneppele (PhD en criminologie) est professeur ordinaire en criminologie dans la Faculté de Droit, Sciences Criminelles et Administration Publiques de l’Université de Lausanne. Actuellement vice-directeur de l’École des Sciences Criminelles, ses recherches se concentrent sur trois domaines majeurs : l’adaptation de la déviance, du crime et de la réaction sociale aux nouvelles technologies ; la compréhension, la détection et la prévention de la corruption dans le sport ; ainsi que les évolutions des trafics illicites et leurs répercussions en matière de sécurité et de durabilité en Europe.
Email: stefano.caneppele@unil.ch
Links: University of Lausanne profile | Google Scholar | Linkedin
DAVID GOGISHVILI (SNSF Senior Researcher)
David Gogishvili is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His research focuses the role large-scale urban development projects, such as mega-events and cultural flagship institutions, play in cities across the globe. He has research expertise in the cities of Central Asia, South Caucasus, and is currently developing in the Gulf Region. David is building a database of cultural flagships worldwide on the prevalence, genealogy, context, rationales and outcomes of these initiatives. He is also conducting research the multiple lives and promises of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Saadiyat Island Cultural District.
Email: david.gogishvili@unil.ch
Links: University of Lausanne profile | Google Scholar | Linkedin
LÉONIE BRODMANN (Doctoral Student)
Léonie Brodmann is a PhD researcher at the University of Lausanne in the fields of sociology of sports, media, and gender. Léonie studied and practiced contemporary dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, followed by sociology and art history at the University of Lausanne. She obtained a degree in sociology of media, culture, and communication. Her research focused on the participation of women in parkour and other lifestyle sports, as well as the interrelation of social media practices and the involvement in such sports. She practices mainly qualitative methods, with a particular interest in membership categorization analysis.
Outside academia, Léonie is a committee member and coach at Parkour Lausanne association. She also is interested in the practices of arts and crafts, their history, socio-political significance, and cultural traditions.
Email: leonie.brodmann@unil.ch
Links: Linkedin
SHREYYA RAJAGOPAL (Doctoral Student)
Shreyya Rajagopal is a Swiss National Science Foundation Researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, where she specialises in sustainability and sports economics.
With a background in international and intergovernmental organisations, including UNESCO, Shreyya’s research interests encompass sustainability, gender, human rights, quality physical education, and the promotion of overall health through increased physical activity.
Driven by a passion for employing quantitative methods in social science research, Shreyya integrates academic rigour with contextually relevant qualitative approaches. Beyond her professional commitments, she is an unwavering environmentalist and a proponent of wildlife preservation. You can usually find her immersed in the outdoors.
Email: shreyya.rajagopal@unil.ch
Links: Linkedin
IOANNIS KONSTANTOPOULOS (SNSF Junior Researcher)
Ioannis Konstantopoulos is an FNS Junior Researcher at the University of Lausanne. He is, also, a sustainability consultant, Founder and CEO of The Sports Footprint, a sustainability consultancy focusing on the world of sports while engaging fans, organizations, and key stakeholders. Ioannis has been working with clients, including but not limited to the Navarino Challenge, Hellenic Football Federation, AEK FC, Olympic Sports Complex of Athens, Pledgeball, Kazakhian Tae Kwon Do Federation, and the Hellenic Basketball Federation.
He has also, developed several educational courses in sport and sustainability for the Football Business Academy, the International Olympic Academy, the Athens University of Economics and Business, and the European Association for Sport Management (EASM); to name but a few. His research interests include the intersection of sport and sustainability and the application of new technologies in sport.
Email: ioannis.konstantopoulos@unil.ch
Links: Linkedin