Urban Transformations in Rio de Janeiro

Since the early 1990s, Rio de Janeiro State has undergone major changes in its economic dynamics, in sharp contrast to the severe economic and social crisis that marked the 1980s. The expansion of the oil extraction sector and the macroeconomic policies of the 2000s are important elements of its recent history. This chapter aims to analyze the nature and determining factors of those changes, considering the main quantitative and qualitative trends in the production structure (sectoral and regional) and in the spatial division of labor in Rio de Janeiro State and in the Metropolitan Region of its capital.

This chapter analyzes and interprets the evolution and pattern of the social organization of the territory of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, between the years of 1980 and 2010, understood from the inscription of its social structure into the physical space. Thus, it evaluates whether the ‘core-periphery’ analytical model is still valid as an explanation of the socio-spatial phenomena of segregation of that metropolis. It also evaluates the meaning expressed by this analytical model from the processes of diversification and territorial polarization observed in the above-mentioned period. It also incorporates another grammar of expression of the social organization of the territory of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro: physical proximity and social distance, bearing in mind the existence of favelas, especially in areas of the metropolitan core.

Recently in Brazil, much public attention has been given to the idea of the emergence of a “New Middle Class,” supposedly composed of individuals who have been lifted out of poverty into that condition by achieving an intermediate level of income. This chapter proposes, first, to contribute a critical reflection on the analysis of social structure through income strata, a common practice in Brazil and many other countries, and which supports the idea of the expansion of the middle class. Second, by using empirical analysis based on data from the last two population censuses, to argue that, at least with regards to the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro—RMRJ), no substantial change in social structure can be verified in the last few years. The chapter will try to demonstrate that the recent changes would be more correctly interpreted as an improvement in the standard of living of the lower classes of the RMRJ rather than a growth of the middle class.

The metropolis of Rio de Janeiro has always been one of the first areas of Brazil to show trends of demographic change, such as decreased fertility, new family structures, and population aging. The purpose of this paper is to describe the past and recent interactions in urban configuration and demographic dynamics of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, as well as analyze the prospects of urban and demographic transition in Brazil, highlighting the behavior of this metropolis compared to the national context. Various indicators on urban and demographic dynamics were used to address the relationship between urbanization processes and demographic transition.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the relationship between the structure of household units, their labor organization and income, and the inequality in income in different areas of the social space of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, from 2000 to 2010. In this context, it seeks to understand how the economic changes that occurred in Brazil over that decade, associated with demographic changes that have been taking place since the 1970s, affected the forms of organization of household units, the composition of living arrangements in different areas of the metropolis, the entry of its members in the labor market and their income. To what extent have these changes altered the patterns of inequality among household units in different areas of that metropolis? The work is based on information from the 2000 and 2010 Demographic Censuses.

The population dynamics in the metropolitan space is related to the social organization of the territory, in which the various elements of the urban structure—such as access to housing, the labor market, services, and mobility system, among others—influence the conditions of reproduction, movement and location of different social groups in space. The objectives of this work are to analyze some recent aspects of population movements in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro and assess how this population dynamics helps to explain the changes in the social organization of its territory. Moreover, given the population aging that currently affects all areas of the metropolis, spatial mobility is considered an important element to understand the present metropolitan dynamics.

This chapter analyzes the socio-territorial pattern of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro as a result of the dispute between housing production modes, in which the capitalistic mode imposes itself. Such a dispute emerges when autoconstructed popular spaces—as well as the commoditized ones—join the corporate circuit of appreciation. It examined trends in housing production by these agents in the last decade, starting with a more general analysis of the metropolitan totality and then privileging four trends of socio-territorial dynamics, in the district scale: elitization of the upper districts of the capital; formation of new concentrations of middle sectors; proletarianization of the inner city; and increasing social distance between favelas and peripheries.

The overall objective of this work is to capture some of the reflexes created by such processes in the relationship between the conditions of access to the labor market and the territorial dynamics of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro. In other words, we intend to analyze the relationships between the processes of social division of the metropolitan territory and the conditions governing the access to opportunities in the labor market. We will seek to test to what extent the location of individuals and social groups in a socio-spatial structure characterized by tendencies to residential segregation and territorial segmentation impact on the quality of employment (occupational fragility) and on the possibilities of transforming the very job opportunity in resources from the labor market (income).

This article is intended to contribute to the understanding of the socio-territorial processes in school results, based on the following questions: (a) Is the center-periphery model sufficient for understanding of more complex processes, such as the Rio (Carioca) model of residential segregation?; (b) Is the school performance of the 4th and 8th grades (respectively 10 and 14 year old) students in the public education system associated with the socio-spatial organization of the city of Rio de Janeiro?; (c) Which mechanisms can be proposed as hypotheses or seem more plausible in explaining the relation between territory and school results in this urban context? In order to handle these questions, this chapter points out the importance of taking the social organization of the territory into consideration as a sphere that is also capable of limiting the overall increase in school effectiveness and of its role in the democratization of access to educational opportunities.

This work aims to evaluate the relationship between the social context of residence and the color of the population to explain social inequalities arising from residential segregation in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (MRRJ). We seek to contribute to the reflection on the issue of Brazilian “racial” inequalities described by other researchers. In more precise terms, our interest is to investigate whether a Black or a Brown individual holds an unequal social status in terms of opportunities and access to certain elements of social welfare regardless of his position in the social division of the MRRJ territory or, on the contrary, whether the social context formed by the residential segregation processes represents the filter through which opportunities and urban social welfare are distributed unevenly among groups of color.

The favela as a social question presupposes a discursive field and action open to passion and reason, centered around a set of aporias sustained by arguments with which they simultaneously intend to become acquainted, judge, and propose, or, to be coherent with what has been enunciated above, propose, judge, and become acquainted. Thus, the main goal of this chapter is to understand the various conjunctures in which the favela enters the public debate must seek to elucidate the relations inherent between the explanation/assessment of its existence and its problems with the propositions of action.

The aim of this paper is to provide theoretical and empirical elements that allow us to reflect on the political culture as a condition for the exercise of active citizenship in a metropolitan context marked by a historical dynamics of segregation. Therefore, we sought to highlight the importance of taking into account, the dimension of urban inequalities in order to understand the distinct political cultures held by metropolitan citizens. For this purpose, we used data collected in a survey on political culture applied in 2006 in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (MRRJ). Also, aiming to illustrate the impact of socio-spatial differentiation on the political behavior of metropolitan citizens, we used spatialized information from the election results for State Legislature, in 2006, in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. Data analysis indicates a significant internal differentiation according to the indicators of political culture used, and that this distinction largely corresponds to the socio-spatial differentiation of the metropolis. So, first, we confirmed the importance of taking into account the urban dimension in the analysis of political culture in metropolitan areas, and, second, the analysis of election results indicated possible connections between the political culture dimension, understood in its socio-spatial differentiation, and the dynamics of political representation.

Having as basis the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, this chapter is designed to contribute to the debate around the issue of a certain political atrophy that marks the Brazilian metropolitan territories. Despite the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro standing as the second economic metropolis of the country located in the geoeconomic space of the Brazilian Southeast which concentrates the most dynamic urban agglomerations of the country’s economy, there is no current institution in this territory capable to assume its governance.

In this article, it is argued that several changes are underway in the city of Rio de Janeiro related to what has been called neoliberal entrepreneurial governance, involving a process of creative destruction of urban structures, institutional arrangements for the management, and regulation of urban space. In particular, one must consider the context of the city’s preparation to receive two sports mega-events, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Supported by a coalition of economic, political, and social interests, this project seems to hit specifically the urban configuration of certain areas, notably Barra da Tijuca, the Port Area and the South Zone, pointing toward the deepening of socio-spatial inequalities in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In this sense, one can say that the current changes go toward something that might be called neoliberal modernization.

In 2010, for the first time, a public bidding was held for the private concession of the entire bus transport system of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Until then, the operation of this transportation modality, the hegemonic one in the city, had been conducted through legally precarious permits. The contractual relations between the state and the traditional bus companies in the city, the bid-winners, could be identified as a rupture with the previous model. However, this analysis points to a complex picture of continuities, adaptations, and trends of changes included in a more general context of the deepening of market logics in the regulation of the public transportation sector.