Resisting Olympic Evictions

Resisting Olympic evictions examines the mobilisation of space to resist removals in favelas in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games. The ethnographic account follows the resistance to evictions in Vila Autódromo focusing particularly on a series of events known as Occupy Vila Autódromo which sought to mobilise the space of the favela as a tool for resistance. In constructing the space as welcoming, friendly and safe, these events challenged the myth of marginality underpinning the attempts to evict the community. Beyond this, the liminal nature of the events crystalised this idea clearly for activists who participated in them, allowing this idea to spread around the world through both social and traditional media in the glare of the Olympic media spotlight. Ultimately, residents constructed an alternative vision of what a favela could be, memorialising this in a museum of evictions to serve as an example in the ongoing struggle for housing rights. In doing so, the book offers a significant contribution to debates around integrating informal communities with formal urban structures in a democratic, participatory way and the conflicts over urban space that this ignites, experienced in cities around the world.