Rio of Imaginaries: City, Mega-Events and Strategic Planning

Abstract

From urban administrators to artists, through entrepreneurs and advertisers, the “Rio” brand is known and consumed worldwide. The media projection that the city had during the preparations and the realization of the 2016 Olympic Games enabled the construction of an imaginary, which is widely used in the intention of legitimizing institutional practices that modified the space and re adjusted it to the interests of governmental and business coalitions. This governance model looks at the city and manages it, literally, as a commodity that must be valued and worshipped in order to project itself in an international market where it competes with other cities. In this article, we intend to discuss the mutations of Rio (and the Rio brand) using as parameters, in addition to the historical context, the Passos Reform in the early twentieth century and the interventions operat ed in the city with a view to the World Cup and the Olympics.