ABSTRACT
Created after heavy rains in 2010 that resulted in about 200 deaths, Rio Operations Center (COR) had a major impact on the management of the city of Rio de Janeiro and positioned it in the smart-cities scenario. Its centrality in the operation of the city demonstrates not only its functional but especially its symbolic importance: COR presents itself not only as an instrument of so-called smart governance but also as the technological materialization of the government control over the city and the urban experience of its population. COR’s technical and symbolic power demonstrates its role in the narrative construction of Rio de Janeiro as a smart city as well as highlights its own logic of action that constitutes the new forms of mobilities in Rio de Janeiro. This chapter explores how COR impacts mobilities in and of Rio de Janeiro and becomes a central tool in municipal management such as a showcase of a kind of administration that sought to be modern and to have complete control over the city.
