A privileged center for the sign, the media and the code, the city is the place par excellence for visual consumption, providing a sense of simultaneity and global interconnectedness. This is particularly clear in times of mega-events, when host cities receive an extraordinary influx of foreign visitors and enter in a hyper-mediated trance. In preparation for the 2014 and 2016 mega-events, the city of Rio de Janeiro has experienced a permanent shock of agenda, characterized by important urban renewal projects accompanied by population removal and slums pacification. With the official assertion of Rio as a global city for (sports and other) mega-events comes a hegemonic will to blend festive public space and advertising. Based on the works of Sharon Zukin and David Harvey on visual consumption and social control, we question the production of such model of festive city. Most particularly in Rio de Janeiro, nonstop partying stands for negative solution i.e. conflict denial.
About the presenterJorge de La Barre
Ph.D. in Sociology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris (2004). Associate Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Department of Sociology and Methodology of Social Sciences (GSO). Researcher at the Laboratory of Metropolitan Ethnography (LeMetro/IFCS-UFRJ), Member of the Urban Culture Studies Collective (University of California, Davis), Associate Researcher at the Institute of Ethnomusicology – Center for the Study of Music and Dance (INET-MD/UNL).