Spatial policies of urban reclassification in a central urban area of Rio de Janeiro: a new strategy of local disintegration and a spectacle of global projection

Abstract

Several cities have implemented in their Downtown Areas post-fordist interventions searching for urban requalification through economic recentralization. In Rio de Janeiro, these State spatial policies intend to turn the Harbor into a multifunctional pole and also integrate it to the Central Core dynamics. This paper analyzes such strategy based on the two last capitalist restructuring to understand the current spatial organization of the Outskirts Zone Downtown and the consequences of the revision of its uses. It studies the attempt to localize Rio de Janeiro in the global metropolises set, as well as a probable deterritorialization of the inhabitants due to the new functions and symbols. Finally, it becomes evident the interrelation of the requalification with the formation of spectacle cities, metropolises with a new esthetic affirmed by the cultural and tourist complex. To integrate the Harbor, the fragmentation of the urban space is emphasized, subordinated to the contemporary capitalism logic.