ABSTRACT
Rio de Janeiro’s entry point into the world of mega-events began in the 1990s as a strategy to attract global capital. Indeed, the adoption of strategic planning can be seen as creating the conditions to host the mega-events. The Barcelona model became a successful demonstration of a strategy to foster mega-events, demonstrated both by Rio de Janeiro’s strategic plan and the recommendation of the city as a candidate for the Olympics. Supported by local academics, professionals, and non-governmental organizations, the case of Vila Autódromo highlights how the mega-event project, in addition to stimulating gentrification, fosters community solidarity and advances social mobilization, illustrating how exclusion also nurtures resistance. The resistance, as a result of Rio’s mega-events, is also a hopeful story that requires reengaging and reactivating the right to the city debate as a right to participate in decisions that produce urban space.
