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The highly variable residential landscapes of Rio de Janeiro are changing rapidly in response to intersecting vectors: a cycle of global mega-events that has accelerated real estate speculation, the occupation of strategic favelas by state military police, and the implementation of state-led urban development projects. The general trend has been toward an increase in rents across the metropolitan region with an identifiable process of gentrification occurring in select neighborhoods. By examining data from Rio de Janeiro’s primary online real estate search engine (zap.com.br), newspaper reports, interviews with residents and personal experience, this paper examines the processes of gentrification in four different regions of the city: (1) Flamengo, a centrally located middle-class neighborhood; (2) the Zona Portuaria, a port region undergoing state-financed, privately led “revitalization”; (3) the Vidigal favela in Rio’s Zona Sul; (4) the suburban neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, site of closed-condominium real estate speculation and Olympic-led infrastructure investment (Figure 1). The paper examines what kinds of gentrification are happening in Rio de Janeiro, suggesting a multiplicity of gentrifications within a mega-city in the Global South.
Christopher Gaffney (Tue,) studied this question.