DOI: 10.12924/johs2016.12010004 |Publication Date: 18 February 2016

Pacification & Mega-events in Rio de Janeiro: Urbanization, Public Security & Accumulation by Dispossession

Lea Rekow 1, 2
1 Arts, Education & Law Group, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
2 Green My Favela, 59 Franklin St, suite 303, New York, NY 20013, USA
Abstract: This paper outlines how Brazil's latest public security initiative-its highly controversial Police Pacification Campaign (UPP)-is an integral component of a neoliberal political framework that is enacting rapid urbanization projects in and around strategically located favelas (informal settlements or slums) of Rio de Janeiro. Specifically, it evaluates what kinds of economic development initiatives are moving forward, how they are facilitated by the UPP, how they connect to the city's mega-events, and who is profiting from them. The article also examines how the pacification has affected residents in three favelas over a seven-year period from the inauguration of the UPP in 2008 through to mid-2015.

Keywords: police pacification; public security; accumulation by dispossession; mega-events; favelas; Rio de Janeiro

Citation


2012 - 2024 by the authors; licensee Librello, Switzerland. This open access article was published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).