tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/favela-10882/articlesFavela – The Conversation2017-02-22T13:33:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/729932017-02-22T13:33:20Z2017-02-22T13:33:20ZRio’s Olympic legacy: six months on, how has the city fared?<p>It’s been over six months since the Olympic games came to a close in Rio. With the benefit of hindsight, many are surveying the city with a critical eye, wondering whether the multi-billion dollar mega-event was “worth it”. </p>
<p>When a city is graced by the pinnacle of cultural and sporting celebration that is the Olympic Games, it also carries out a programme of ambitious urban development: from short-term regeneration to longer-term infrastructure works. Since the start of the century, such non-sporting outcomes have become a major part of the bidding process for would-be host cities. </p>
<p>Today, a bid to host the Olympics can provide a powerful political will for change, pool public and private money together in enormous funds, and catalyse urban development at an astounding rate. </p>
<h2>Mixed visions</h2>
<p>Yet event-led policies are complex. They cut across many different locations, affecting communities and businesses in myriad ways. Competing interests must be prioritised, and those with money and power are often better able to influence outcomes to their advantage than poorer, less “visible” residents.</p>
<p>Rio’s favelas offer a case in point. Around <a href="http://catcomm.org/favela-facts/">23% to 24%</a> of the city’s population live in informal or slum housing, and many were <a href="https://theconversation.com/vila-autodromo-the-favela-fighting-back-against-rios-olympic-development-52393">hit with forced evictions</a> to make way for sports facilities or transport routes. One civil society group calculated that <a href="http://www.childrenwin.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/DossieComiteRio2015_ENG_web_ok_low.pdf">22,059 families</a> were evicted across the city ahead of mega-events between 2009 and 2015 – that’s approximately <a href="http://catcomm.org/favela-facts/">77,206 people</a>. </p>
<p>Here we find that mega-events escape from the confines of democratic planning, and avoid the progressive, plural and consultative processes typically found as part of the “normal” governance of daily life. Scholars have observed that during the planning and delivery periods, host cities symbolise <a href="http://gamesmonitor.org.uk/files/marrero-guillamon_olympicstateofexception.pdf">“Olympic states of exception”</a>, wherein urban policies are fast-tracked to deliver the infrastructure in time for the games. </p>
<p>The vision for Rio’s Olympic legacy drew a mixed response before the games even began, so now that they’re over, the city is in for some heavy scrutiny. To even the most optimistic eye, it’s clear that in places, reality falls far short of the dream.</p>
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<p>Venues remain without owners, part-functioning or <a href="https://www.rt.com/viral/377545-rio-brazil-olympic-decay/">in complete disarray</a>. They are transforming into text-book examples of “white elephants”; flashy developments built for show, which fall out of use and become a burden on public funds once the party is over. For the residents of a city which was already struggling in the grips of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rio-reaches-crisis-point-ahead-of-the-olympic-games-61819">economic, political and health crises</a>, this must be especially frustrating. </p>
<h2>A ray of hope</h2>
<p>But while the physical remnants of the games are withering, the cultural legacy of Rio’s Porto Maravilha shines bright. Before being <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-believe-the-doom-mongers-the-olympics-have-changed-rio-for-the-better-64225">made-over for the games</a>, the area had a reputation for being unsafe: abandoned buildings were blemished by broken windows, and locals avoided walking there after dark. </p>
<p>But now, six months on, it’s the place to be: throngs of people can be seen cycling or strutting across what was the largest ever “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-rio-2016-satisfied-its-sponsors-while-leaving-room-for-the-people-64071">live site</a>” in Olympic history. The <a href="http://portomaravilha.com.br/porto_maravilha_cultural">Porto Maravilha</a> has become a cultural hub, where locals and visitors gather to eat local street food and soak up the sights, which include attractions such as <a href="http://portomaravilha.com.br/my_porto_maravilha">My Porto Maravilha</a> and one of the <a href="http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/8/brazilian-artist-paints-his-way-into-a-new-record-440451">world’s largest murals</a>. </p>
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<p>Of course, this kind of urban make-over can have unintended consequences. Gentrification occurs when major structural and economic changes <a href="http://www.oecd.org/regional/leed/46207013.pdf">force lower income communities out</a> of an area, and it’s one of the biggest challenges faced by Olympic host cities, past and future. </p>
<p>In the case of the Barcelona 1992 games, it was found that gentrification “<a href="http://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/12-09-09-A-Marathon-not-a-Sprint-Legacy-lessons-for-London.pdf">changed the social mix</a>” of local communities and caused house prices to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/77989/WF-impact_of_the_Olympics.pdf">jump 250%</a> between 1986 and the start of the games. Similarly, since the Olympic park was constructed for London 2012, the thriving community of artists in nearby <a href="https://theconversation.com/going-going-gone-how-olympic-legacy-is-killing-londons-creative-culture-63791">Hackney Wick</a> has been threatened with displacement. </p>
<p>Regeneration is a <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldolympic/78/78.pdf">two-sided coin</a>: it can raise the standards of living for local residents – or progressively drive them out entirely. The risk is that every time Olympic developments price out locals by driving up housing costs, it makes the prospect of hosting the Olympics <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-your-city-wont-want-to-host-the-olympic-games-52289">a little less attractive</a>. </p>
<p>The truth is, much of the story of Rio’s Olympic legacy has yet to be written. And what counts as a win to some may feel like a sore loss to others. There will be businesses that continue to ride the wave of trade after the event, while creatives capitalise on the port’s new cultural scene. But there will also be poorer, more vulnerable residents struggling to find and settle into new homes. Perhaps the best way to judge is to visit and see for yourself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some Olympic venues have become withered husks – but it’s not all bad news.Mike Duignan, Lecturer in Tourism Management / Research Fellow, Anglia Ruskin UniversityYvonne Ivanescu, PhD Candidate, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/672082016-10-25T06:12:48Z2016-10-25T06:12:48ZIs this the end of slum upgrading in Brazil?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142032/original/image-20161017-12418-k43htv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brazil's favelas are famous, but so are its ambitious efforts to bring roads, water, electricity, and land rights to its informal urban settlements. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eflon/4404716468/in/photolist-7HejKo-e4K2Sk-e4QDS7-4KN9xj-6fcLM6-7V1PRy-92DKEA-qY8mfT-yCswq-92DKuL-zcRQ-5gcG-a2G7ob-6gkdZQ-e4K5Rr-5wGem7-4rLkD1-e4QmFQ-x2jXD-e4K55r-6giKuq-e4JLjn-e4QEEu-5Xeo2k-7VhRir-77HkBB-e4QAPo-5QgMvU-5QgL3s-e4JS8t-92DKKN-84kUAe-4AMfB3-e4Jv1R-ej9Jb8-e4JujF-5Us62f-e4JQPB-8r8cuD-e4JxaB-cuEssA-5Qcw4r-LvF8G-9BKoJr-4pbx1V-5UnHFF-7XR2NK-92ADxD-aEtMgN-92ABiZ">eflon/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Brazil’s ongoing economic and political drama, one of the latest developments is a congressional proposal to freeze federal funds at 2016 levels, adjusting the 2017 national budget only for inflation. This move would mean deep cuts to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/09/a-camara-votara-na-pec-241-que-obrigaria-cortes-drasticas-por-20-anos-sem-ouvir-especialistas/">spending on social programnes</a>.</p>
<p>Though such reductions would affect programmes that <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/Slum-Upgrading-Lessons-from-Brazil.pdf">launched millions of Brazilians into the middle class</a> and put the developing country <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/2015-un-millennium-development-goals-brazil-hits-target-others-failing-poverty-education-1467208">on track to meet</a> many of the <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">Millennium Development Goals</a>, the senate seems likely to approve the budget freeze. </p>
<p>For Brazilian cities, this government belt-tightening promises a disquieting change: the possible end of the country’s <a href="http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2012-09-05/slum-upgrading-lessons-learned-in-brazil,10096.html">ambitious slum-upgrading programs</a>. Despite Brazil’s great wealth, many poor neighbourhoods known as <em>favelas</em> (slums or “informal settlements” in urban planning parlance) still struggle with inadequate construction quality, no sanitation, environmental risk factors and lack of the most basic infrastructure. </p>
<h2>The peripheral city</h2>
<p>In the past, the country has approached its slums in various ways, including razing them and displacing the residents. The focus on upgrading started in the late 1980s, aided by a new constitution in 1988 that included <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25334">housing</a> as a right, alongside health, food, and education. The constitution also put the responsibility for urban development – meaning housing, sanitation and transportation – squarely in government hands. </p>
<p>This strategy replaced a century of mass displacement of poor people, from the “city beautification” movements of the early 20th century to real estate speculation in the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 1980s, the military government enforced <a href="http://www.observatoriodasmetropoles.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=442%3Aditadura-militar-e-favelas-estigma-ao-debate-sobre-a-cidade-1969-1973&Itemid=165&lang=pt">massive evictions</a> of poor residents living in valuable areas of the city. </p>
<p>As shantytowns were bulldozed to make way for high-end developments, poor people were forced to move increasingly far away from cities’ commercial centres. Today, Brazilian slums are most commonly found in the <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/CA_Images/CityStatuteofBrazil_English_Ch1.pdf">urban periphery</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to pushing the poor to the outskirts, such measures encouraged the sudden creation of entirely new neighbourhoods within cities. For example, Rio de Janeiro’s <a href="http://www.aldiadallas.com/2016/08/10/conoce-la-favela-ciudad-de-dios-en-rio-de-janeiro/">City of God</a>, <a href="http://www.revistadehistoria.com.br/secao/capa/cidade-de-deus-e-condominio-do-diabo">once so violent</a> it inspired a <a href="http://www.miramax.com/movie/city-of-god/">film</a> of the same name, dates back to 1960s removal policies that pushed out residents from 63 slums in the city’s southern zone – today the wealthiest part of Rio.</p>
<h2>Brazil’s urban reform movement</h2>
<p>By the late 1980s, cities were trying new strategies. Pushed by the powerful urban social movements of Brazil’s early democratic period and bolstered by the 1988 constitution, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Recife, among others, began to implement affordable and modest step-by-step upgrades to slums in partnership with residents. </p>
<p>They addressed the critical question of land tenure for those who’d built their homes on public land with <a href="http://www.ambitojuridico.com.br/site/index.php?n_link=revista_artigos_leitura&artigo_id=6570">Certificates of Real Right to Use</a>, which fell short of a title but recognised the slum-dwellers’ right to occupy. Cities also created new zoning laws that designated some neighbourhoods as having a “<a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00959913">special social interest</a>” – meaning, they must stay affordable for people in the lowest income brackets. </p>
<p>Feeling safe from the threat of eviction for the first time, locals began to invest in their homes, replacing precarious tin shanties with larger and higher-quality constructions. They opened small businesses in their neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>In 2001, the new <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/CA_Images/CityStatuteofBrazil_English_Ch6.pdf">City Statute</a> gave local governments a federal mandate to create concrete legal tools to address the problem of “irregular” urban property. Low economic growth and rising unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s had spurred more people to settle in slums; population density of Brazil’s informal settlements was now between <a href="http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/16/16137/tde-27042010-151732/pt-br.php">500 and 2,000 inhabitants per hectare </a>. </p>
<p>The problems facing these neighbourhoods had also become <a href="http://unhabitat.org/books/sao-paulo-a-tale-of-two-cities-2/">more complex</a>, and upgrading would require significant physical reworking of the area. These included building drainage, widening roads, building green spaces, and the like, all of which required more funding, generally obtained from international donors.</p>
<p>Successful examples such as <a href="http://www0.rio.rj.gov.br/habitacao/favela_bairro.htm">Favela Bairro</a> in Rio de Janeiro, are from this period. There, using funds from the <a href="http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2012-09-05/slum-upgrading-lessons-learned-in-brazil,10096.html">International Development Bank</a>, the city constructed a sewage system, implemented environmental risk control, channelled streams, and created parks.</p>
<h2>Federally funded slum upgrades</h2>
<p>Eventually, the government designated federal resources to help Brazilian cities fix up their slums, in the form of the <a href="http://www.pac.gov.br">Growth Acceleration Program</a> (PAC, in its Portuguese acronym). This is the program now endangered by budget cuts. </p>
<p>In 2007, 20.7 billion reals (approximately US$10 billion) in PAC funds supported <a href="http://www.rc21.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/D4-Petrarolli-Moretti.pdf">3,113 housing interventions</a>, including for cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants – a rarity, since Brazilian housing policy generally focuses on large cities. In 2010, a second <a href="http://pac.gov.br/sobre-o-pac/apresentacoes">PAC</a> allocated 17 billion reals for 415 projects, targeted at larger cities in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.</p>
<p>The PAC put slums <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/agencia/images/stories/PDFs/TDs/td_2174.pdf">at the centre of federal housing policy</a>. This focus has been decreasing since 2009, when the government launched its subsisided home-ownership program, <em>Minha Casa Minha Vida</em> (“My Home, My Life
”), but not since the 1980s has the future of poor urban neighbourhoods been so unclear. </p>
<h2>Exclusion upon exclusion</h2>
<p>This uncertainty is particularly concerning given the relationship between poverty, race and informal settlements in Brazil. Many slums originated after abolition in 1888, when freed slaves began to build their own homes the only way they could afford: constructing shacks in overlooked urban areas with less threat of eviction. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/rio-450-anos/noticia/2015/01/conheca-historia-da-1-favela-do-rio-criada-ha-quase-120-anos.html">oldest <em>favela</em></a> in Rio de Janeiro, <em>Morro da Providência</em>, was founded in 1905 on an unbuilt swath of the city bordered by factories, graveyards, and railroad tracks. Today, its population is still largely black and brown, and its problems have grown from insufficient infrastructure to serious gang-related violence.</p>
<p>Black and mixed-race people still make up the majority of residents in Brazil’s informal settlements. <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25311">New maps of Rio</a> reveal that the iconic beachside neighbourhoods of the city’s wealthy southern zone are 80% to 90% white, while people of colour live in the poorer north and west zones, with the highest concentration in <em>favelas</em>. The <a href="http://bit.ly/1PosJKu">project</a> was undertaken by a geography student and based on US maps that show how poverty, race and neighbourhood correlate in that country. </p>
<h2>Complicated times and an uncertain future</h2>
<p>Brazil’s current economic hardship and rising unemployment have sent more families to live in slum conditions, and more cities now have informal settlements than in previous decades. The latest census data show that (<a href="http://www.fjp.mg.gov.br/index.php/docman/cei/informativos-cei-eventuais/634-deficit-habitacional-06-09-2016/file">26.5% of Brazilian households</a>), or 13 million citizens, lack basic infrastructure.</p>
<p>Poor neighbourhoods are also <a href="http://portalgeo.rio.rj.gov.br/estudoscariocas/download%5C3190_FavelasnacidadedoRiodeJaneiro_Censo_2010.PDF">growing denser</a>. This reflects, in part, the difficulty that poor people face in finding urban housing, thanks to skyrocketing real estate prices (a relic of the country’s boom years). In São Paulo alone, the city <a href="http://www.habitasampa.inf.br/files/CadernoPMH.pdf">estimates</a> that it would need to construct 368,731 new homes to be able to fill its housing gap. There, some 811,377 households lack one or more basic urban service like drainage or sewage. </p>
<p>Thus, the slums are “<a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/livros/livros/160718_caracterizacao_tipologia_cap03.pdf">swelling</a>”. Their area does not increase, but the population does. Buildings are growing taller, making upgrades harder. </p>
<p>Even after 30-plus years of upgrading efforts, today, in some municipalities, <a href="http://www.fjp.mg.gov.br/index.php/docman/cei/informativos-cei-eventuais/634-deficit-habitacional-06-09-2016/file">nearly half of households</a> still lack basic infrastructure. Waste treatment and removal remains the <a href="http://www.fjp.mg.gov.br/index.php/docman/cei/informativos-cei-eventuais/634-deficit-habitacional-06-09-2016/file">greatest challenge</a>. And the poorest slums are situated in unsafe locations such as steep hillsides or flood zones, areas heavily impacted by climate change. This has caused dramatic <a href="http://www.anppas.org.br/encontro4/cd/ARQUIVOS/GT11-510-219-20080510105031.pdf">loss of life and physical property</a>. </p>
<p>Urban poverty isn’t just a problem for the people who live in such conditions: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/07/brazil-rich-zika-virus-poor">epidemics such as dengue and Zika</a> are attributed to the precarious urban-environmental context of Brazilian cities. </p>
<p>If Brazil moves forward with its proposed budget cuts, there is little hope that Brazilian urban households will overcome their challenges in the next two decades. The country can ill afford such savings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Rodrigues Samora has received funding from the Sao Paulo Research Foudation for her research.</span></em></p>For decades, Brazil has worked to improve conditions in its poorest neighbourhoods: building roads, drainage, lighting, and safer housing. Will budget cuts end its ambitious slum-upgrading efforts?Patricia Rodrigues Samora, Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of CampinasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/642252016-08-22T15:01:48Z2016-08-22T15:01:48ZDon’t believe the doom mongers – the Olympics have changed Rio for the better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134988/original/image-20160822-18718-cefrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">lazyllama/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>No sooner had the 2016 Olympic Games finished than commentators were lamenting their negative impacts on the host city, Rio de Janeiro. Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/21/rio-2016-olympic-games-brazil-legacy-party">have concluded</a> that a sustainable Olympic legacy is either uncertain, or downright impossible. But while these tales of doom and gloom make for dramatic headlines, the reality is not so grim. </p>
<p>The international press have always been pessimistic about Brazil’s ability to stage the Olympics. Before the games began, a steady flow of articles <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3663080/Just-month-Olympics-Rio-2016-scaffolding-debris-unfinished-subway-stench-sewage-air-venue-venue-construction-s-without-taking-Zika-account.html">critiqued the preparations</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/vila-autodromo-the-favela-fighting-back-against-rios-olympic-development-52393">condemned forced evictions</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/olympics-2016-rio-de-janeiro-metro-line-extension-troubles-traffic">cast doubt</a> on whether vital infrastructure would be delivered on schedule. Admittedly, in the context of the ongoing economic crisis and political turmoil, there was – and still is – good cause for concern. But it is important not to get fixed on controversies as the only source of truth.</p>
<p>Once the games started, the city was given a short break and the focus moved to the wonders of sport - and obsessive medal counting. But after many were swept up in the thrill of the games themselves, it didn’t take long for <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2658583-rio-report-the-olympics-will-leave-a-heavy-financial-burden-on-the-host-city">the criticisms to return</a>. In contrast with this bleak picture, <a href="http://www.beatrizgarcia.net/?page_id=44">my own research</a> on Rio throughout the games fortnight, building on a framework that interrogates the cultural dimensions of this as well as eight previous host cities since Sydney 2000, reveal a different dimension of the Olympic city this summer. </p>
<h2>The art of progress</h2>
<p>The people I spoke to were frustrated that uplifting stories about the urban, social and cultural changes taking place in Rio were not being picked up by journalists. This was especially clear in Rio’s <a href="http://catcomm.org/planner-on-favela/">favelas</a>, where I conducted the bulk of my research. These informal slum-like settlements span across the city’s hills and have attracted worldwide attention for their poor living conditions and the high crime rates, associated with drug dealing. </p>
<p>While internal gang wars have resulted in targeted violence for decades, favela residents insist they are also part of strong and optimistic communities. Those outside of gang rivalries say that they feel safe and well supported within their neighbourhood, and that culture and creativity has always been <a href="http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/01/in-this-rio-favela-dj-skills-come-free/384318/">a source of empowerment</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134870/original/image-20160821-30396-1i0ah7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DJ Zezinho speaks to a Russian TV crew about his work as community DJ in Rocinha.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In particular, cultural activists working in the favelas, such as DJ Zezinho and Obi Wan, told me that they were fed up with being asked to talk about everything that is wrong in Rio. They said that their community life is thriving and opportunities are opening up for residents like Obi Wan, who got a grant to study at a private school and is now running a popular youth hostel and <a href="https://theconversation.com/slumming-it-how-tourism-is-putting-the-worlds-poorest-places-on-the-map-61320">favela tours</a>. </p>
<p>Artists (both home-bred and adopted) are also bringing about positive changes to their neighbourhoods. The International Olympic Committee’s first artist-in-residence – photographer and street artist JR – has taken a prominent role in a number of projects at the Olympic Games. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134876/original/image-20160822-30370-fex7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">JR’s InsideOut.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His work ranges from the monumental <a href="http://www.jr-art.net/news/jrs-giants-in-rio-de-janeiro-for-the-olympics">Giants</a> to portraits of Olympic participants (<a href="http://blogs.ft.com/photo-diary/2016/08/inside-out-in-rio-de-janeiro/">InsideOut</a>), to small, community-focused interventions – such as a cultural centre, <a href="http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/january/28/the-house-that-jr-built-and-then-rebuilt/">Casa Amarela</a>, based in one of Rio’s oldest favelas. </p>
<p>What’s more, the first favela-based libraries are opening up, and the new Olympic metro line will improve accessibility to Rio’s most prominent favela, Rocinha. Residents are hopeful that this will finally make it plain that favelas are truly a part of Rio – they weren’t even recognised on official maps <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/brazil-favelas-mapping-765350-Jan2013/">until 2013</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134871/original/image-20160821-30366-jh9cfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local entrepreneur Obi Wan speaks in front of Rocinha graffiti sensation Wark, whose work is spread throughout Rio and internationally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, locals’ reactions to the Olympics aren’t all positive. One Rocinha resident pointed out: “We are not allowed to use the metro until after the games – at the moment, only Olympic competition ticket holders can.” But in the wake of extensive drug lord removals and <a href="http://stanford.io/2bAp5PS">pacification</a> – a controversial but transformative effort to fight crime in the favelas, which was accelerated as the Olympics were looming – no one denies that the big event has helped advance important social causes and address essential public infrastructure needs. </p>
<p>It’s not just residents of the favelas who are feeling some benefits from hosting the games. Despite Rio’s reputation for being a city of <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Rio.pdf">great inequality</a>, it does actually have a substantial middle class. Between <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Rio.pdf">60% and 75%</a> of its population live in four large districts: the historic, downtown Centro, the flashy Zona Sul, the largely low-income, residential Zona Norte and the suburbs of the west side. </p>
<p>The latter includes Barra da Tijuca – the site of the main Olympic Park, which is rapidly developing as new, more wealthy communities move in. The Olympic Games have given Rio’s middle-class residents – particularly those in Centro and Zona Norte – a chance to participate in the debate around the kind of city Rio is, and could be. </p>
<h2>No-go to must-go</h2>
<p>Both city and Olympic officials have made much of <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-president-hails-rio-2016-as-iconic-games">the claim</a> that 63% of the population now have access to public transport (up from 18%, seven years ago). But an equally important (and, culturally, more significant) Olympic legacy for Rio is the rediscovery of its public spaces, as areas for people to meet and mingle. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134877/original/image-20160822-30383-1sb926b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Olympic Boulevard in Porto Maravilhas was the most popular site for collective (unticketed) celebration during the games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as Barcelona rediscovered its port during the 1992 Olympics, Rio has reconnected with the long-derelict Porto Maravilhas. The Porto borders downtown Centro, an area which bustles with office workers from all across the city during the week. </p>
<p>But up until recently, Centro lacked public meeting spaces, and was considered an unsafe, no-go area in the evenings and on weekends. This has changed dramatically for the duration of the Olympic Games (and carrying on into the Paralympics). Porto Maravilhas has been rebranded as the Boulevard Olimpico – and suddenly, it’s the place to be.</p>
<p>A dedicated Olympic “live site”, where fans can watch the action on big screens, the Boulevard Olimpico owes its success to the ingenious combination of a diverse cultural offering (including the new <a href="https://www.museudoamanha.org.br/en">Museum of Tomorrow</a> and the revamped <a href="http://www.museudeartedorio.org.br/en">Museum of Art in Rio</a>) with business displays and entertainment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134878/original/image-20160822-30387-vj0qhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Huge works from Kobra has encouraged other artists to work in the area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, the thoughtful way the space has been used sparked a flurry of street artists (five so far, and counting) to take over old warehouse walls and produce enormous graffiti artworks. </p>
<p>And this is only the second time – after Vancouver’s Winter Olympics in 2010 – that an Olympic Cauldron was placed outside the sports venue, giving those without tickets the chance to experience one the most recognisable Olympic icons first hand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134880/original/image-20160822-30370-1spp5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The eco-friendly Olympic Cauldron has become one of Rio’s favourite sites for selfies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, Cariocas have flocked in their thousands to the Boulevard Olympico. They have fully embraced this new part of their city: there will be no white elephants here. The port has passed from no-go to must-go area in a matter of months and, given its position as meeting point for daily commuters, it is set to become one of the most lively and diverse public places in the city. </p>
<h2>A lasting legacy</h2>
<p>The Parque Madureira, in the northern part of the city, is another example of urban regeneration leaving a positive legacy for the local community. Located in a densely populated, low-income area, which is dominated by factory infrastructure, this new park has brought greenery, sporting facilities and new cultural life to a neighbourhood of more than 350,000 people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134881/original/image-20160822-30377-15y7ejs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The largest set of Olympic rings are placed at Madureira park, in low-income Zona Norte.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beatriz Garcia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rio is a big city. With Olympic activities dotted across the four main districts, hardcore sports fans have been forced to spend a considerable part of their day in transit. Because of this, visitors have been exposed to the many sides of Rio, beyond the sandy beaches in Copacabana and the dirty streets in the slums. </p>
<p>Above all else, the games have showcased the generous spirit of the Carioca. While in Rio, I witnessed the locals’ thrill at discovering new spaces to gather, exercise and party; their enjoyment and surprise at mixing with people from other districts – often, for the first time, given the city’s longstanding north-south economic divide, and their refusal to be confined by stereotypes and condemned to repeat the same social and cultural mistakes. </p>
<p>There are hard times ahead; the country still faces an ongoing recession and political turmoil. But the Olympic Games have opened up new public spaces, giving everyone the chance to generate positive collective memories – with the Paralympics yet to come. Rather than taking on a defeatist, “can’t-do” attitude, there is much to be gained by paying attention to what’s gone right in Rio.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatriz Garcia is conducting academic research in Rio de Janeiro partly funded by an International Olympic Committee Advanced Research Grant. Other funding comes from the British Academy Newton Fund and involves a collaboration between the University of Liverpool and University of Sao Paulo to assess cultural narratives of Brazil in the wake of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.</span></em></p>A candid assessment of the impact of the games, from an academic on the ground.Beatriz Garcia, Head of Research and Cultural Policy, Institute of Cultural Capital, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638192016-08-12T02:17:32Z2016-08-12T02:17:32Z‘No More Hunger’ Games: if only we cared about the real-world Liveability Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133872/original/image-20160812-13397-67q24w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Urban planning was once an Olympic event, although the first gold medal – awarded to Germany's Alfred Hensel for the Nuremberg stadium – turned out to be an unfortunate choice.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Influenced by the Rio Olympics, I am really proud that the City of Melbourne is going to win the equivalent of a silver (or maybe bronze) medal in the 2016 <a href="http://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Liveability2015">Economist Global Livability Ranking</a>. Actually, if the 2015 rankings are anything to go by, then Adelaide, Sydney and Perth will also be in the top ten.</p>
<p>But wait, doesn’t Melbourne really deserve the gold medal? We have come to expect it, having been ranked the world’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-18/melbourne-named-worlds-most-liveable-city-again/6705274">most liveable city for the past five years</a> in a row.</p>
<p>However, my RMIT University colleague, Michael Buxton <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-set-to-lose-status-as-worlds-most-liveable-city-experts-warn/news-story/a780bbb076de73252d9ee36358075af4">argues that Melbourne may have blown its chances</a> in 2016! A number of issues would explain a drop in the ranking – traffic congestion, long commutes, poorly performing public transport and the growth of high-rise apartments among them. Throw in the homelessness problem and the fact that few young people can afford to buy a house in the city and Melbourne may have a lot of work to do to regain the top ranking.</p>
<h2>Does it really matter?</h2>
<p>Maybe we should just ignore the new ranking. <a href="https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities">I argued</a> a year ago that the Economist Intelligence Unit (<a href="http://www.eiu.com">EIU</a>) ranking is not about liveability at all, but is designed to help the human resource managers for transnational corporations determine the compensation paid to their mobile global talent. The ranking tells you very little about living as a local in Melbourne, especially if you don’t have a whole lot of money. </p>
<p>There are other rankings out there that we already ignore. These include <a href="https://www.imercer.com/content/mobility/quality-of-living-city-rankings.html">Mercer’s Quality of Living Ranking</a>, in which Melbourne ranked 15th in 2016. There is <a href="https://monocle.com/film/affairs/top-25-cities-2016/">Monocle Magazine’s Quality of Life Survey</a> where Melbourne dropped from fourth in 2015 to sixth in 2016. The Monocle reviewers’ comment on Melbourne’s drop was that “clever housing solutions are still needed!”</p>
<p>Here is how the rankings compare. Vienna is the clear winner with a strong showing in all three rankings. But hats off to Sydney, the only Australian city to be ranked in the top ten by Mercer, Monocle and EIU.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133754/original/image-20160811-18037-1dg8svi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Principles of Olympism</h2>
<p>Perhaps it would be better, however, if we came up with a ranking of our own. So again, taking the Rio Olympics as inspiration, I propose a totally new city ranking – the Liveability Olympics Ranking.</p>
<p>I have the impression I am not alone in feeling somewhat disconcerted by the scenes in the run-up to the Rio Olympics when <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-no-mood-for-games-the-pale-olympic-flame-of-rio-2016-63191">protesters threw themselves in front of the Olympic torchbearers</a>. There is a concern in segments of the Rio population, in Brazil and more widely that the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/building-barra-rio-olympics-brazil/493697/">Olympics bring few benefits to the locals</a>. John Oliver tapped into this concern in his sketch on the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil when he explained how he was both excited and conflicted about this event.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DlJEt2KU33I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">John Oliver airs his conflicted feelings about global sport mega-events.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fundamental problem is that these mega-events put too much strain on cities and divert resources from where they are needed. They are just a major corporatised sales event for big companies and a bucket-list experience for the globe-trotting privileged.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100737740">Susan Fainstein raised this issue</a> with respect to the 2012 London Olympics when <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=bRPK3PWUvU8C&pg=PT187&dq=%22huge+expenditure+involved+took+away+resources+from+other+parts+of+London+and+the+country%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi12Znew7rOAhVFi5QKHS8tAqcQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22huge%20expenditure%20involved%20took%20away%20resources%20from%20other%20parts%20of%20London%20and%20the%20country%22&f=false">she argued that</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the huge expenditure involved took away resources from other parts of London and the country more widely without providing them any benefits beyond the glory of hosting the Games.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No matter how much we love the Olympics and how much pleasure we gain seeing our team win, shouldn’t we question the value of these games for the city (or country) that hosts them? Wouldn’t the money be better spent solving problems facing the host city? </p>
<p>What if, for example, Rio used the money to upgrade the informal settlements (slums)? It is estimated that close to <a href="http://catcomm.org/favela-facts/">1.5 million people live in the Rio favelas</a> – around 24% of the city population .</p>
<p>Wouldn’t that be more in line with the <a href="https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc/promote-olympism">Olympian emphasis on universal ethical principles</a>?</p>
<p>It has also been argued that the very nature of these mega-projects may mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-your-city-wont-want-to-host-the-olympic-games-52289">few cities are capable of, or interested in, hosting</a> the winter and summer Olympics. This relates in part to the fact that research shows that the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/economic-benefits-of-hosting-olympics-2014-10">economic assessments underpinning past Olympics have been flawed</a>. They just don’t bring local economic benefits on the scale predicted.</p>
<p>There is also the problem of what happens to Olympic (or World Cup) facilities after the event. Some are <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/will-brazils-world-cup-stadium-middle-amazon-pay-180951630/">under-utilised</a> and eventually <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/abandoned-olympic-venues_n_3580868">fall into disrepair</a>.</p>
<h2>Jeux Sans Frontières</h2>
<p>Perhaps as we move forward there will be more <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/08/05/exp-gps-gladwell-clip-olympics.cnn">calls for the transformation of the Olympics</a> away from the current model. Recalling Peter Gabriel’s 1979 song, <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Without_Frontiers_(song)">Games without Frontiers</a> (Jeux Sans Frontières), I would like to suggest that rather than cities competing to host the Olympics, we should promote a global competition between cities. After all, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_art_competitions#Town_planning">town planning was an Olympic event</a> in the 1928, 1932, 1936 and 1948 games.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xZmlUV8muY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The video for Peter Gabriel’s Games without Frontiers carries references to the Olympics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How would this work? It is pretty simple really. Instead of volleyball, swimming, athletics, gymnastics and so on, cities would compete on hunger, poverty, unemployment, affordable housing, homelessness, crime, drugs, public transport, renewable energy, cycle-friendliness, traffic congestion and many more.</p>
<p>So we could have the situation where Melbourne works on and eventually wins the gold medal for its outstanding efforts to reduce homelessness. Or a gold medal could be awarded to the athletes who record the best time racing across a city by public transport. To compete fairly, cities need to be drug-free (or legalised drugs only).</p>
<p>Well, it’s not going to happen.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, we have to question why we neglect problems in our cities while we invest huge resources every four years in the Olympics or World Cup. Hey, I love the Olympics and World Cup just as much as you do, but the way we organise these games just seems badly broken.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Imagine cities competed to eliminate hunger, poverty, unemployment, crime and greenhouse emissions, and to offer housing and transport for all. Don’t scoff – urban planning was once an Olympic event.Brendan Barrett, Research Fellow/Research Coordinator, UN Global Compact Cities Programme, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/544262016-08-10T12:45:21Z2016-08-10T12:45:21ZA tale of three surprisingly different street gangs around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133669/original/image-20160810-18037-2tmq3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/91865719/in/photolist-97QtH-6tkCUR-53VPnv-5tfv8-ogsL-cNz5z9-6a7hVU-n1kAL2-cNz56G-6a7hXG-ogri-9YFNi-4tEKth-98Jbmx-2mtNNA-ogsy-cjxDB-C8KfYw-5Myntt-5tgcK-c6yBc-sXUBj-4r3a8T-cNzcw1-9YFKW-4GD2FS-7Hp9wN-7Hp9Vj-7Hkek6-nuhnoG-9yYdxS-BCn1e3-keg3Cu-n1nbDE-9Xw18-4ACVUs-nJJtMA-dv2bt-n1jRrV-6tkCWg-5Tir4i-9trEE3-4ACVUu-7tcUWu-Ciodno-5hie-8rpqDU-8zZ1hJ-8rGXkr-CtXiBP">duncan c</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It can sometimes seem like there are gangs everywhere you look. At the Rio Olympics, fears of gang-related violence <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/04/rio-2016-olympic-torch-skirts-riots-and-drug-gang-clashes-in-host-city">have resulted</a> in intensive security – <a href="https://www.acss.org.uk/news/new-book-policing-2012-london-olympicslegacy-social-exclusion/print/">much as</a> in London four years ago. In Brussels, gang rivalries are the subject of a new film called <a href="http://black-themovie.com/en/">Black</a>, which paints a picture of multi-ethnic street culture and migrant exclusion. </p>
<p>In Chicago, <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo19852785.html">a new book</a> has documented the relationship between organised crime and street gangs in the city; while in the UK racialised stereotypes about gangs are <a href="https://theconversation.com/joint-enterprise-ruling-is-a-chance-to-challenge-racism-in-the-justice-system-55050">being used</a> in courtrooms to justify “joint enterprise” prosecutions aimed at convicting people of crimes by association. </p>
<p>Yet are all these people talking about the same thing? Having spent large amounts of time with street-based youth on three continents over ten years, the reality is more complex. The “young teams” of Glasgow, the “institutionalised gangs” of Chicago and the “night drifters” of Hong Kong are very different from their stereotypes in the media or courtroom. They are also sufficiently different from one another for it to make little sense to cover them with a single definition of gangs – let alone laws or policies. </p>
<h2>Glasgow boys</h2>
<p>I began my <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/urban-legends-9780198728610?cc=gb&lang=en&">fieldwork</a> in Glasgow volunteering for several years in a youth project in a part of the city with a reputation for being home to gangs. I learned that things were very different from what I’d expected. It wasn’t structured or hierarchical like a club, but more about being attached to a local area and continuing street-based traditions from the past – a “hand-me-down” from generation to generation that reflected community and identity as much as crime and violence. </p>
<p>I heard of children incorporating gang identity into their street games, lining up toy soldiers against one another and giving them gang names – just as they would chase one another over the territorial boundary of their neighbourhood gang. As they grew up, some would fight over the same boundary or spray gang graffiti. Most grew out of it, though. </p>
<p>Where in other cities gangs have gradually developed into more organised criminal operations, the Glasgow equivalent seem to have stayed mostly youthful and unorganised. It is true that this has not always been the case – the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4286514?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Beehive Boys</a> in the 1930s and the <a href="http://dangerousminds.net/comments/frankie_vaughan_and_glasgows_gang_culture_of_the_1960s">razor gangs</a> of the 1960s come to mind – but these are the exceptions. Some of the same gang names reported in the early 20th century are still around today, and what they represent has not fundamentally changed. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EnMlXy5owmU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Chicago bound</h2>
<p>Visiting Chicago for three months in 2009, I thought the gang scene would be the same. <a href="http://tcr.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/04/1362480616659129.abstract">Glasgow and Chicago</a> are both former second cities founded on heavy industry, with persistent patterns of poverty and structural disadvantage. My time with some local people in a community with high levels of violence in west Chicago blew this out of the water, however. </p>
<p>Sitting on milk crates on a warm autumn afternoon, a man told a story of his son recently being robbed and shot in the back. The boy was dealing drugs on the corner and had been taken for all he had. There had been retaliatory shootings and a war was brewing. The man was defiant and vicious in his talk of vengeance. </p>
<p>In Chicago, the youth groups functioned as a type of institution in severely marginalised communities. They may have started as adolescent groups, but decades of mass imprisonment, the war on drugs, and urban disenfranchisement had seen them develop into something else. When I told the man about my Glasgow fieldwork, he didn’t believe there could be youth gangs with no guns, who didn’t deal drugs or make much money. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133541/original/image-20160809-11853-1uvd1ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s happening.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-893729/stock-photo-guys-from-puerto-rican-day-parade-walking.html?src=DAzFdpi3juGi1djnWxkdeg-1-54">Tatiana Sayig</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The view from Hong Kong</h2>
<p>In Hong Kong, things were different again. I lived and worked there for four years, and spent time with a social-work outreach organisation that worked with so-called “young night drifters” thought to be at risk of joining local gangs. They colonised the night in much the same way as street gangs elsewhere, yet when we talked to some in a children’s playground at 3am one night, it was very different to meeting their Glasgow or Chicago equivalent. These young people were discussing strategies to improve their chances of getting to university. </p>
<p>During my time in Hong Kong, I also struggled to square the circle of a heavy triad presence and the low levels of street crime – not exactly what those that have seen the likes of Hong Kong triad flick Young and Dangerous might have expected. Ultimately it seemed linked to the fact that the triads bought into the need for social order. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fJxHLwRCtxs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Triad organisations were embedded in some housing estates and their local “dai lo” (or boss) sometimes approached groups of young people on the estate to carry out tasks. Crime might be part of these activities, but violence would be kept to a minimum to avoid disrupting the community. On one night, for example, I arrived in an estate in the midst of a skirmish between rival groups. Eventually the dai lo came out and told everyone to go home – and they did.</p>
<p>These experiences demonstrated to me that to understand gangs, it is important to start from ground level and the everyday experiences of young people. Gangs take numerous forms and local realities should prevail over global stereotypes. </p>
<p>All over the world, gangs seem to form as a defensive response to economic disadvantage. Yet they develop different meanings in different cultural environments and are often as different from one another as they are from the stereotypes. They can be pro-social and community-oriented as well as violent. They are also often a convenient scapegoat, misunderstood and misrepresented, used to justify punitive measures against young people.</p>
<p>So next time you hear the word “gang”, question it. Don’t take it at face value. Push back against it. Ask what it means to young people, and why it matters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alistair Fraser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>They’re a global phenomenon – but gangs are so varied that they barely merit the same name.Alistair Fraser, Lecturer in Criminology/Sociology, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/632192016-07-29T13:20:17Z2016-07-29T13:20:17ZAirbnb brings Olympic tourists to Rio’s poorest areas – but will locals benefit?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132377/original/image-20160728-12125-1kvdmwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwoan/6860318456/sizes/l">rwoan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-21/rio-2016-organizers-remain-in-denial-even-as-tourism-flags">Hundreds of thousands</a> of tourists are flocking to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic Games. In order to meet the shortage of hotel accommodation, the city <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-airbnb-brazil-idUSKBN0ML01K20150325">has made</a> the online rental platform Airbnb <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/07/07/rios-favela-entrepreneurs-turn-to-tech-in-time-for-rio-2016/">an official partner</a> for the games. The company now lists 25,000 units in Rio – a massive rise from only 900 in 2012. </p>
<p>With Brazil’s economy in the doldrums, some <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-seeks-big-boost-from-rio-olympics-1464288255">have praised the platform</a> as a way for Cariocas (residents of Rio) to make extra money during the games. Nowhere would this be more welcome than in Rio’s favelas – neighbourhoods that are home to some of the city’s poorest inhabitants. </p>
<p>From the beachfront neighbourhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema, one can easily spot favelas such as Babilonia or Vidigal, perched on the steep hills surrounding Rio’s South Zone. Favelas are often located close to more affluent areas and are home to many labourers, security guards, cooks, drivers and nannies, who are employed by their better-off neighbours.</p>
<p>The favelas house up to <a href="http://catcomm.org/favela-facts/">a quarter of Rio’s population</a> – they are still considered no-go areas by some and access to public services and social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals is still limited. For decades these neighbourhoods <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-microsoft-expose-brazils-favelas-1411659687">were hidden</a> from official maps of the city – a reflection of the neglect they received from the authorities. </p>
<h2>Slum tourism</h2>
<p>These neighbourhoods have long held a fascination for visitors to Rio and, since the early 1990s, tourists <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo23369980.html">have ventured</a> into some of the favelas in the South Zone on walking tours. Over the years, this trend has increased and today <a href="http://www.academia.edu/12161901/Slum_Tourism_State_of_the_Art">it is estimated</a> that at least 50,000 visitors go on tours in Rio’s favelas each year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132397/original/image-20160728-12120-femmdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On tour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bsas4u/16531274189/sizes/o/">Daytours4u/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Favela tourism has also diversified; increasingly, visitors are seeking out favelas for their nightlife and markets – and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/06/travel/brazil-favela-tourism/">sometimes also to find accommodation</a>. Some hostels have been operating in favelas for well over a decade. But now online rental platforms (ORPs) such as Airbnb have given residents of the favelas the chance to extend their hospitality personally by renting out their own rooms or apartments to tourists. </p>
<p>This development comes at a time when cities across the world are debating the significance of ORPs. Airbnb and similar ORPs are part of what their proponents call “the sharing economy”. According to <a href="https://1zxiw0vqx0oryvpz3ikczauf-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Policy-Report-NYCBlackNeighborhoods-MT-R10.pdf">research conducted by Airbnb</a>, ORPs can allow people on modest incomes to generate some extra income. </p>
<h2>A sharing economy?</h2>
<p>But some <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/7865959/airbnb-under-fire-new-york-city-city-council">accuse providers</a> such as Airbnb of accelerating gentrification by increasing the price of real estate. In particular, critics point out that OPRs encourage the transformation of whole apartment houses into permanent short-term rental flats by commercial providers, because such arrangements are more profitable than long-term tenancies. </p>
<p>In this way, ORPs reduce the availability of affordable housing in cities such as <a href="http://insideairbnb.com/new-york-city/">New York</a>, <a href="http://airbnbvsberlin.com/">Berlin</a> or <a href="http://insideairbnb.com/paris/">Paris</a>, according to its critics.</p>
<p>In New York City – one the world’s largest ORP markets – the number of rooms and flats offered on Airbnb alone has now reached around 35,000. In response, lawmakers in New York State have <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/19/11973078/nys-senate-passes-bill-banning-airbnb-entire-apartment-listings">recently approved new legislation</a>, which bans the renting of whole apartments for periods less than one month, in order to stop short-term rentals.</p>
<p>In Berlin, a similar law <a href="https://theconversation.com/berlin-has-banned-homeowners-from-renting-out-flats-on-airbnb-heres-why-59204">came into effect</a> in May 2016, which requires everyone who wants to rent out their whole apartment to get a commercial licence from the city council.</p>
<h2>The view from Rio</h2>
<p>So far, ORPs have attracted little controversy in Rio de Janeiro. Unlike in New York or Berlin, there has been no comprehensive research on the effect of ORPs on the housing market, particularly in favelas. So, for the time being, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-seeks-big-boost-from-rio-olympics-1464288255">Airbnb’s claim</a> that ORPs allow Rio’s residents to make ends meet in a situation of economic uncertainty goes unchallenged.</p>
<p>Such effects would clearly be welcome in favelas, but from what we know so far, they seem rather unlikely. Only two favelas – <a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/locations/rio-de-janeiro/vidigal">Vidigal</a> and <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/locations/rio-de-janeiro/rocinha?locale=en">Rocinha</a> – are listed on AirBnb as neighbourhoods. There are a number of additional listings in smaller favelas, often with pre-existing tourism infrastructure. </p>
<p>There are now about 250 listings on Airbnb in favelas across the city – which makes up just 1% of the overall listings for Rio de Janeiro. It seems probable that the low uptake of Airbnb is caused by the lack of spare space in the favelas.</p>
<p>There is a clear concentration of Airbnb favela listings in Vidigal, which has around 180 ads. Yet many of these are provided by brokers – not by individuals – which we can tell by the fact that they are offering multiple units. Some places are even offered under company names – another indication that these operations are commercial by nature. </p>
<p>Faced with the expansion of ORPs, there seems to be a growing consensus between many cities that intelligent regulation is needed to limit or prevent their negative impacts. And Rio is no exception: Vidigal – an area which has <a href="http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/police-to-pacify-rocinha-and-vidigal-favelas/#">long been subject to</a> gang violence and police “pacification” interventions – is already facing <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=13032">significant pressures from gentrification</a>. Without proper regulation, ORPs are likely to intensify gentrification and displacement in favelas, rather than provide income support for Rio’s poorest residents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabian Frenzel received funding from the European Research Council from 2012-2014.</span></em></p>New York, Berlin and Paris have all suffered some ill effects from online rental platforms – without proper regulations, Rio could follow.Fabian Frenzel, Lecturer in the Political Economy of Organisation, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/569512016-04-26T13:58:51Z2016-04-26T13:58:51ZRio 2016 Olympics will be a success – but just who will benefit?<p>As we draw ever closer to the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, commentators have been scrutinising the host city with a keen eye for imperfections. Whether it’s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3119698/Stadiums-just-steel-shells-venues-quarry-Stunning-aerial-photos-reveal-Brazil-faces-biggest-race-Olympic-history-ready-Rio-2016.html">stadium construction</a> running behind schedule, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/sports/olympics/as-olympics-near-and-zika-spreads-no-talk-of-a-plan-b.html?_r=0">Zika virus</a> deterring the crowds or <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/04/19/brazil-rousseff-impeach-olympics-lklv-darlington.cnn">political crisis</a> threatening to topple the country’s president, each set back has been itemised and analysed by the international press. </p>
<p>So far, the focus has been on whether Rio is ready for a 17-day sporting event. But this overlooks the fact that these preparations have been affecting Cariocas – as citizens of Rio are known – for the past seven years and will change the face of the city for decades to come. So, what impact will the Olympics have on the residents of Rio – especially those who may not be privileged enough to attend the Games?</p>
<p>Many new sporting venues are being built for Rio 2016, but some people – including International Olympic Committee members – have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/29/rio-2016-olympic-preparations-worst-ever-ioc">expressed doubts</a> about whether these facilities will be completed in time for the event. And yet, as it stands, the vast majority of venues are either already finished or on schedule and the <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/how-rio-looks-with-six-months-to-go-to-olympic-games/news-story/690ef19e8207c36aca819c5a58fe9018">main Olympic park is 98% complete</a>. What’s more, there’s a strong incentive for authorities to invest in completing the stadiums to avoid the global embarrassment of venues not being ready. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117170/original/image-20160402-3932-12wmfxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The remains of the Vila Autódromo favela - with the IOC hotel visible in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Talbot</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While last-minute spending on stadiums would cost Rio’s taxpaying citizens, the construction works have come with more sinister consequences for those living in the city’s informal settlements – known as “favelas”. Many of Rio de Janeiro’s favela communities have been hit with forced evictions in the lead up to mega-events – in particular, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/vila-autodromo-the-favela-fighting-back-against-rios-olympic-development-52393">Vila Autódromo favela</a>, which is next to the main Olympic park. </p>
<p>This is the only favela which Rio mayor <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=26453">Eduardo Paes publicly admits</a> has suffered evictions because of the Olympics, but civil society group the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics calculated that <a href="http://www.childrenwin.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/DossieComiteRio2015_ENG_web_ok_low.pdf">22,059 families have been evicted</a> across the city ahead of mega-events between 2009 and 2015.</p>
<h2>Transport infrastructure</h2>
<p>Rio’s transport system is being upgraded for the Olympic Games and the flagship project is a new metro line to the wealthy west-zone neighbourhood of Barra da Tijuca, where the main Olympic park is located. The construction of this key legacy project is currently behind schedule, but it will <a href="http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-real-estate/rio-de-janeiros-new-metro-line-4-to-open-in-june-2016/">almost certainly be ready</a> to transport spectators to the stadiums. And even if the new line isn’t ready in time, the city will have contingency plans in place to get fans to events.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120169/original/image-20160426-1335-1fvybwb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rio’s metro line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro_Metro#/media/File:Metro_Rio_01_2013_Ipanema_Osorio_5408.JPG">Mariordo/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new line will benefit the wealthy citizens of Barra de Tijuca by taking a great deal of traffic off congested roads. It will also improve urban mobility for some 70,000 residents of Brazil’s largest favela, Rocinha, which will also be served by the new line.</p>
<p>But, as has been the case with the stadiums, many favela residents <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/brazil-officials-evicting-families-2016-olympic-games">have been evicted</a> to build transport infrastructure – particularly the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Aside from the BRT system, the city has recently “rationalised” the regular bus services, which in practice has meant cutting numerous lines. The cuts have adversely affected urban mobility for many living in Rio’s north zone – traditionally a poorer area of the city. </p>
<p>Yet despite these cuts to the bus service, prices have actually risen, with no clear improvement in service quality. By making transport <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25043">unaffordable for those living in the periphery</a>, the Olympic legacy will widen the gap between rich and poor, in a city already world famous for its staggering <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Rio.pdf">levels of inequality</a>.</p>
<h2>Poor health report</h2>
<p>The mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has its epicentre in Brazil, has been declared a <a href="http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/en/">public health emergency by the World Health Organisation</a> and many are concerned that Zika will be an issue during the Olympics. But Rio de Janeiro is around 2,000 kilometres from Brazil’s poor north-eastern region where the crisis began and the Games will take place in August when mosquitoes are less common. Meanwhile, a national campaign against the Zika virus has educated Brazilians on basic actions they can take to combat mosquitoes.</p>
<p>That said, there have been issues with mosquito-borne diseases including Zika, dengue and <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/">chikungunya fever</a> in the Vila Autódromo favela. Standing water in the Olympic construction site has provided a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117168/original/image-20160402-6820-1f1r6nl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Residents of the Vila Autódromo favela highlight the problem of mosquito-borne diseases.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, in December, the city of Rio suffered a public health emergency of its own: <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-health-emergency-idUSKBN0U716Q20151224">there wasn’t enough money</a> to keep the hospitals open. Olympic spending appears to have been prioritised above health spending and, in some cases, funds may have been diverted from the health budget <a href="http://josecruz.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2015/12/rio-2016-governo-nega-material-a-upa-e-faz-estoque-para-olimpiada/">to finance the Olympics</a>. Overall, Cariocas who rely on the public health system have been left in a dire situation.</p>
<h2>Corruption scandals</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120192/original/image-20160426-1327-exc26h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests against Rousseff in Brasilia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotosagenciabrasil/25757736815/sizes/l">Agência Brasil/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Operation Lavo Jato (or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34255590">operation car wash</a>) is a massive corruption probe – overseen by Judge Sergio Moro – which has shown Brazilians the scale of corruption inside their government. Although there are no specific allegations against her, the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/18/dilma-rousseff-congress-impeach-brazilian-president">faces impeachment</a>, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/13/brazil-anti-government-protests-dilma-rousseff-rio-de-janeiro">millions of demonstrators</a> across the country have called on her to resign. </p>
<p>The Olympic Games are unlikely to be affected by this political instability, especially given the relatively minor role played by the federal government in the event. However, several Olympic construction contracts are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-olympics-petrobras-exclusive-idUSKBN0TD1XO20151125">under investigation</a> by Operation Lavo Jato. This is unlikely to effect the running of the event, but prosecutions for those responsible may follow in the years after the Games.</p>
<p>Once the Olympics are over, many of the publicly-funded developments will be sold off or handed over to property developers. For example, businessman Carlos Carvalho – a staunch supporter of Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes – will be <a href="http://olimpiadas.uol.com.br/noticias/2016/04/13/rio-muda-parque-olimpico-para-favorecer-odebrecht-e-parceiros.htm">given the Olympic park</a> in Barra de Tijuca, including land which was previously owned by the State of Rio de Janeiro. Given that Carvalho has expressed a desire to build a “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/04/rio-olympic-games-2016-property-developer-carlos-carvalho-barra">city of the elite</a>” in the area, one might question his suitability to inherit the Olympic park and secure the social legacy of the Games. </p>
<p>There’s no doubt that Rio 2016 will be a wonderful sporting spectacle. But much like the infrastructure itself, coverage of the Olympics will largely fail to consider what the Games mean for Rio’s citizens. And as a result, the Olympic legacy is likely to be one of increasing social divisions and worsening inequality – a lost opportunity for all Cariocas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Talbot does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why we should stop panicking about whether the Olympic venues will be ready and start thinking about the long-term impacts of construction.Adam Talbot, Doctoral Researcher in the Sociology of Sport, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/542862016-02-10T11:37:56Z2016-02-10T11:37:56ZThe Olympics are coming to town – but Carnival will always come first in Rio<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110811/original/image-20160209-12571-1myxdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nateclicks/16024346174/sizes/l">nateClicks/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After five days of revelry, involving more than <a href="http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-entertainment/nearly-1-million-tourists-attended-the-2015-rio-carnival/#">a million visitors and participants</a>, Rio’s Carnival has drawn to a close. It is, in some ways, a global phenomenon: Carnival captures a sense of the exotic, creative flair of South American culture, and projects it outward to an enormous audience from around the world. Even the name of the city conjures up images of flamboyant dancers, head dresses and colourful floats. This collection of vibrant and awe-inspiring human art installations seems, at some level, to embody Brazilian culture. </p>
<p>Carnivals take place in many locations throughout the world, and most have their origins in cultural and religious traditions and rituals. Indeed, the word “carnival” comes from the Latin phrase “carne-vale” (flesh farewell) originally marking a period of feasting and revelry before the fasting of Lent. But can carnivals – in particular Rio’s Carnival – really be seen in this light anymore? Or have they been passed over to the forces of globalisation and commodification, and become a mere spectacle staged for the consumption of tourists? </p>
<p>After all, Rio’s Carnival now generates <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rio-carnival-2014-in-numbers-brazil-kicks-off-the-greatest-party-on-earth-tomorrow-but-where-will-9157909.html">in the region of 3.2 billion Brazilian Real</a> (£570m), and three quarters of this comes from tourism alone. The 200 samba schools that take part in the parades <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-02-23/carnival-puts-some-samba-in-brazil-s-economy-the-ticker">spend up to £3m</a> on outfits and preparations, and 250,000 jobs are created each year by the carnival. </p>
<h2>Double the fun?</h2>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/12/brazil-carnival-economic-crisis-recession">the recent downturn</a>, Carnival’s annual economic benefits for the city have been likened to that of an Olympic Games – which might lead one to expect that the city will benefit doubly this year, as it prepares to host the games in August. </p>
<p>Sporting mega events are proven, with effective management, to secure high return on investment; a good example being the <a href="http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp084_eng.pdf">1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona</a>. But such returns are never guaranteed. For one thing, public funding is sacrificed to host mega-events; increased taxes and spending cuts to other areas often are not taken into account when calculating the financial benefits. And whereas a vast proportion of money invested comes from the public purse, much of the profit received does not go back to the public, but to shareholders and investors. </p>
<p>Social benefits are also achievable, through sound ethical investments in education, transportation and security, as per <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78105/201210_Legacy_Publication.pdf">London 2012’s legacy policy</a>. But all too often, these provisions <a href="http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/05/07/2013/hosting-major-sports-events-hidden-costs-and-policy-dilemmas">are short-term and heavy-handed</a>, with little or no consideration for the needs of communities that live in the city. </p>
<h2>Stark contrast</h2>
<p>One example can be seen in the favelas, which have become a major part of Brazilian culture. Favelas are informal urban settlements, which typically house a city’s poorest residents. And while the favelas are often associated with <a href="http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/72/1/4.full.pdf">social and health issues</a> such as crime, drug use and teenage pregnancy, they are also people’s homes. Many of Rio’s samba schools – which prepare the floats for Carnival’s parades – are based in these areas: the celebrations are woven into their economic and cultural fabric.</p>
<p>Part of the programme to prepare for the Olympics is to “clean up” or “pacify” the favelas, to make the city safe for tourists. With a greater police presence, <a href="https://theconversation.com/vila-autodromo-the-favela-fighting-back-against-rios-olympic-development-52393">forced evictions</a> and questionable pacification tactics, this policy has the potential to stifle creativity and freedom of expression, while quashing the counterculture which gives Rio its unique character.</p>
<p>And so, Carnival offers more to the local people than any mega event ever could through a sense of ownership and shared value. In essence, the playful cultural activities that it involves reflects their culture, provides freedom of expression and bolsters the creative industries. Carnival is Rio: it has been part of the city’s cultural life <a href="http://www.rio.com/rio-carnival/history-carnival">since the 1700s</a>. And while hosting the Olympic Games gives Brazil the opportunity to stage two of the biggest shows on Earth in one year, Carnival is much more important to its cultural and spiritual survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are benefits to hosting the Olympics - but when it comes to culture, there’s no mega-event like Carnival.Karen Davies, Senior Lecturer in Events Management, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/523932016-01-12T14:20:18Z2016-01-12T14:20:18ZVila Autódromo: the favela fighting back against Rio’s Olympic development<p>Vila Autódromo is a small <a href="http://catcomm.org/planner-on-favela/">favela</a> perched on the edge of the Olympic Park developments in Rio de Janeiro. The <a href="http://worldlandscapearchitect.com/olympics-2016-rio-de-janeiro-brazil-aecom/">official plan</a> for the park ensures that there’s space for the community to keep living there, and Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=10734">promised that</a> nobody would be forced to leave. </p>
<p>Yet since Rio was awarded the right to host the games, many homes in the community have been destroyed to make space for construction works. In some cases, evictions <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/forced-evictions-vila-autodromo-rio-olympics-protests">have turned violent</a>. In others, dwellings are demolished without warning – for example, one resident’s house <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25558">was destroyed</a> while she was at a doctor’s appointment. These evictions – and the protests and social movements they have incited – have formed the focus of my doctoral research.</p>
<p>The favela sits on a beautiful lagoon in Rio’s fast-developing West Zone. It would make for prime real estate, fuelling <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/rio-olympics-protest-vila-autodromo-relocation">speculation that</a> the current residents are being evicted to free up the land for redevelopment. </p>
<p>Politically speaking, it’s easy to evict these residents because of the stigma surrounding the favelas. Theresa Williamson, executive director of the NGO <a href="http://catcomm.org/">Catalytic Communities</a>, explained the impact of the public’s negative perceptions about favelas to me in an interview:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[It] gives policy makers a pretext to do whatever they want. If you think favelas are violent by nature, you’re going to think any policing is good policing. If you think favelas are precarious, horrible places to live, then you’re going to think any public housing is good housing. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106743/original/image-20151219-27868-sbnogk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Not everyone has a price.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Talbot</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>This stigma gives the impression that residents would be happy to be relocated to new housing built under the Brazilian government’s <a href="http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/introduction-to-the-brazilian-housing-program-minha-casa-minha-vida">Minha Casa, Minha Vida</a> (my house, my life) programme – a R$34 billion house-building initiative, which has been used to resettle those removed from favelas. Indeed, it is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-07/rio-slum-residents-refuse-to-move-for-the-olympics/7073278">estimated that 80%</a> of Vila Autódromo’s 700 or so families have accepted compensation and moved to alternative accommodation. This is a result of a <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25938">campaign of pressure</a> by the city described by residents as “psychological warfare” and “terrorism”, combined with increased money offered as compensation.</p>
<p>But the housing is often poor quality, and essential living costs such as electricity are significantly higher. This has led to <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25015">accusations that</a> the programme reproduces social inequalities, rather than addressing them. And for the 40 families that remain, the favela is home. One resident showed me around his house, where he had got married ten years ago, showing me photos with a smile on his face and joking with his wife. Their home was placed under <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=20983">eminent domain</a> in March 2015.</p>
<h2>Organised resistance</h2>
<p>On top of this, Rio’s government has sent military police units to “pacify” the city’s favela communities. These communities have a reputation for being violent and dangerous, and authorities leverage those often misguided perceptions to justify using barbaric levels of force. A vast number of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/brazil-trigger-happy-military-police-kill-hundreds-as-rio-prepares-for-olympic-countdown/">unlawful killings by police</a> have been reported by human rights organisations.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fywvd6mmDhs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Alongside local residents, such organisations have played a significant role in documenting human rights violations in the lead up to the event. For example, the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics in Rio de Janeiro recently released its <a href="http://www.childrenwin.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/DossieComiteRio2015_ENG_web_ok_low.pdf">fourth dossier</a> of human rights abuses, covering the year 2015. Likewise, detailed daily coverage by news site <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/">RioOnWatch</a> helps to hold the city to account and encourages residents. </p>
<p>Rio’s misguided perceptions of favelas, and its intense focus on achieving short-term success over a few days in August, have led the government to pursue this policy of forced evictions and pacification. But there is another way. By celebrating the vibrant nature of favela communities, the city could make Vila Autódromo part of the show. The residents are incredibly friendly and welcoming, and have recently played host to events such as <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=25688">cultural festivals</a> and <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=26190">football tournaments</a>.</p>
<p>By viewing favelas primarily as cultural assets, the city could incorporate Vila Autódromo into their plans for the Olympic Park, and use it to showcase the creativity and spirit of Rio, during those few days in August when the world comes to play. It’s not too late for the city to change, to provide upgrades for the residents in Vila Autódromo and use the community to show favelas to the world through a different, positive lens.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106741/original/image-20151219-27851-15qcauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Ataque Brasil’ plays to the crowd at a cultural festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Talbot</span></span>
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<p>In his <a href="https://theconversation.com/rio-olympics-has-its-commandments-but-what-legacy-will-it-leave-50779">excellent analysis</a> of the likely legacy of Rio 2016, academic Jorge Knijnik concluded that the only hope is for civil society to counteract the injustices arising from Brazil’s turbulent sociopolitical environment. But more can be done. The activists I’ve met in Rio de Janeiro need support from citizens all over the world. </p>
<p>Anyone who wants to see a fair Olympic Games – one which lives up to the promises of peace and respect made in the <a href="http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf">Olympic Charter</a> – can add their voice to those already asking, “Olimpíadas para quem?” (“who are the Olympics for?”). By sharing the stories about human rights violations in the build up to the games and ensuring the voices of Rio’s residents are heard, people all over the world can help to achieve a greater social legacy for the Olympics.</p>
<p><em>This article is part of a series on the outlook for <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/rio-2016">Rio 2016</a>. You can also find out why <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-your-city-wont-want-to-host-the-olympic-games-52289">your city won’t want to</a> host the next Olympics, and discover how hosting the Paralympics <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-london-how-hosting-the-paralympics-can-make-cities-more-accessible-53044">can change a city</a> for the better.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Talbot contributes to RioOnWatch as a collaborating researcher as part of his ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro</span></em></p>Residents of Rio’s favelas are facing forced evictions – but they’re not moving out without a fight.Adam Talbot, Doctoral Researcher in the Sociology of Sport, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/272912014-06-10T04:29:19Z2014-06-10T04:29:19ZBrazil’s World Cup preparations showcase ‘celebration capitalism’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50537/original/n86xrqxf-1402202758.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In preparing for the World Cup, Brazilian police have embarked on a process of cleaning up the country's poorest neighbourhoods, known as favelas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Antonio Lacerda</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Brazil is famous for many things: samba, football and beaches, but also its <em>favelas</em>, the poor neighbourhoods that encircle its cities. These areas are often on invaded lands in middle and upper-class neighbourhoods. The biggest, such as Nordeste de Amaralina in Salvador and Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, have over 100,000 residents, closely packed into houses that have been extended upwards by adding extra storeys.</p>
<p>These favelas are one of Brazil’s most visible characteristics, making the divides between rich and poor plain to see. The people living in the favelas are generally disaffected over the irregular land tenure, but some are also involved in heavily armed drug-trafficking gangs.</p>
<p>It is unknown how many favelas exist. Brazil’s <a href="http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/populacao/censo2000/">2000 Census</a> counted 513 favelas in Rio, but there are estimated to be at least 1000 now with over two million residents. As the football World Cup rapidly approaches, capturing global audiences and huge amounts of capital for FIFA and corporate sponsors, the blame these areas attract for the crime and violence of Brazil has increased.</p>
<p>In preparing for the World Cup, the Brazilian government has <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/brazil-evicted-won-celebrate-world-cup-201452012437552695.html">evicted residents</a> from their homes for commercial development and increasing real estate values. But the government has denied forcibly evicting families from their homes without due process, or for the sole purpose of infrastructure projects related to the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Brazils-Dance-with-the-Devil">book</a>, American sports journalist Dave Zirin characterises these huge events as “Trojan horses” for neoliberal assaults on the general population, in a similar manner to Naomi Klein’s <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine">“shock doctrine”</a>. Extraordinary events are used to create a “state of exception”, allowing the capitalist elite – through the state – to impose drastic economic and social alterations.</p>
<p>Instead of “disaster capitalism”, sports events become “celebration capitalism”, where strong corporate pushes can be hidden under the supposed joy of bringing the world together in sport.</p>
<p>World Cups and Olympics have displayed this pattern clearly in past decades. Host nations have been witness to large-scale evictions and social cleansing in which the poor are removed from sight. This aids in the gentrification and corporatisation of public space, the erosion of civil liberties and huge increases in surveillance.</p>
<p>Huge subsidies flow to private hands. The construction, real estate, security and media industries enjoy a boom at the expense of the poorer communities left behind. In most cases, this all has the celebratory consent of the population.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/brazil-army-rio-slums-violence-world-cup">In Brazil</a>, police began the “pacification” in 2008, attacking gangs in the slums and setting up permanent posts. So far, at least 37 such “police pacification units” have been created, covering an area with a population of 1.5 million people.</p>
<p>As a result of this state violence, the number of people who have “disappeared” in Rio has increased to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/brazil-rio-missing_n_4059580.html">more than 4000</a>. Amnesty International has taken a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619722/Brazil-police-accused-cleansing-favelas-World-Cup-football-carnival-rolls-town.html">dim view</a> of the government’s plans:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The government is trying to paint a pretty picture for the world, saying things have been cleaned up and that Brazil is safe for tourists. But the reality is far darker.</p>
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<p>This is not a new phenomenon. <a href="http://revolution-news.com/state-repression-in-rio-leaves-2-dead-1-in-a-coma-govt-media-target-black-bloc/">Police violence</a> has been endemic in Brazil; it represents the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facundo">long history</a> of economic racism, social oppression, stigmatisation and criminalisation of the majority “barbarous” poor. The local police have officially admitted that they committed some 5000 murders in a 2007 report. But as one Brazilian politician <a href="http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/deputado-defende-policiais-presos-no-caso-da-mulher-arrastada-no-rio-11922823">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Jails are for convicted bandits, not for cops.</p>
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<p>The oppression has continued with <a href="http://revolution-news.com/brazil-mediagovt-attack-blac-bloc-protestors-with-lies-and-new-anti-protest-law/">laws to silence</a> protests against the World Cup. The tournament is a new round of capitalist accumulation, in combination with the eviction of peoples to turn their land into profit.</p>
<p>But the resistance has also risen. Protests have cropped up throughout Rio, largely against police violence as well as forced removals for the World Cup.</p>
<p>The most visible resistance was <a href="http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/protesto-confusao-no-pavao-pavaozinho-12267387">protests in Copacabana</a> in April after the death of Douglas Rafael da Silva, or DG, a dancer who appeared on a popular TV show. Pacification police allegedly murdered Da Silva in the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela. These protests resulted in one death and sparked fear in a traditionally middle-class neighbourhood, with streets shut down and fires burning.</p>
<p>Residents in the Cantagalo favela, near the affluent suburb of Ipanema in Rio, <a href="http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/transito/noticia/2014/04/protesto-fecha-acesso-estacao-general-osorio-do-metro-rio.html">lit fires</a> in the streets and protested the shootings of two residents in April. This was followed by a protest in Alemão after a fatal shooting of an elderly woman, with a <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Brazil+police+suspected+traffickers+clash+slum+Clinic+attacked/9786996/story.html">bus set alight</a> and rocks thrown.</p>
<p>Additionally, multiple buses were <a href="http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/cinco-onibus-sao-incendiados-por-vandalos-em-protesto-na-pavuna-1-12325405">set on fire</a> in Pavuna after the death of a young resident in the Chapadão favela.</p>
<p>Perhaps pacification, despite its many problems, may actually be giving favela residents a louder voice. There is a greater opportunity to reveal state abuses in an often-forgotten part of the world with the spotlight currently on Brazil.</p>
<p>However, those disgusted by the evictions, police brutality and destruction of communities may all miss this in the intoxicating energy of the World Cup and the mythical <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazil-world-cup-protests-stir-painful-memories-of-oppression-26986">“Carmen Miranda”</a> view of Brazil, making this form of celebratory capitalism the real winner in sports.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Self does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Brazil is famous for many things: samba, football and beaches, but also its favelas, the poor neighbourhoods that encircle its cities. These areas are often on invaded lands in middle and upper-class neighbourhoods…Andrew Self, Postgraduate Associate at the Institute of Latin American Studies, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.