In the Shadow of Glory: Olympic Pageantry and the Disruption of Rio’s Favelas

This senior honors thesis explores the changing urban landscape of social inclusion in Rio de Janeiro as the city prepares itself for the 2016 Olympics. The study is driven by a simple question: who are the winners and losers in hosting the Games? The city is undergoing a number of infrastructure projects as it prepares for the Games, capitalizing on Olympic preparations but leaving significant populations of the city ignored. Combining economic development theory, tourism theory, and displacement theory, I focus on the specific case of Morro da Providência, Latin America’s oldest favela, to understand the eviction process that 835 families in this community are experiencing in favor of the construction of a cable car slated to be open in May 2013. This analysis explores the dynamics and tensions of urban renewal as it simultaneously operates on the global and local level in one of the most unequal cities in the world.