Paper short abstract:

An exploration of the factors determining diversity across Rio’s favela population and of the implications of current physical, economic and institutional changes to these dynamics, based on a comparison of two contrasting case studies.

Paper long abstract:

The undoubted economic and social exclusion and lack of rights experienced by residents of Rio de Janeiro's favelas often leads to generalised accounts of the poverty and violence that are assumed to prevail within them. However the degree and nature of challenges face by favelas across the city vary enormously. These are determined by factors such as local economic context, degree of access to public services and political representation, and local dynamics of security and conflict. Furthermore, all of these factors are currently in flux as Rio undergoes dramatic and spatially uneven physical, economic and institutional transformations ahead of the upcoming 2016 Olympics. This paper will examine some of the key variations and transformations through a comparison of two contrasting favelas.

Favela Asa Branca was established in the 1980s in the rapidly urbanising suburb of Jacarepaguá, and lies just one kilometre from the future Olympic Park. Tuiuti, meanwhile, is an historic favela in the central, industrial zone of São Cristóvão - an area close major regeneration projects in the port zone and Maracanã stadium. The favelas contrast starkly in terms of historic and current patterns of economic development, public intervention and security dynamics, including the instalment of a Police Pacification Unit (UPP) in Tuiuti in 2011. The key differences between them point to some of the complex underlying dynamics that shape life across Rio's large favela population, while similarities highlight the persistent barriers they collectively face to meaningful social and economic development and full citizenship.