Mega-Events in Rio de Janeiro

a reflexion about justice and human cost

Abstract

From the inequalities produced around the mega-events in Rio de Janeiro, this paper proposes a reflection on the invisibility of those who live the “exception as rule” (the tradition of the oppressed, from a Benjaminian perspective, taken up by Agamben). It is important for us to think about the victims of the city's transformation process and how they are affected by the perverse logic of development and progress, as well as the biopolitical strategies of life control that blend into the social fabric responsible for the perpetuation of barbarism. In this article we will talk about the importance of breaking the logic of human cost justification, that is, the injustices done to the excluded in favor of improvements for a privileged part of the population. We will also address the various forms of struggles and resistance put in place that have caused defeats to the state-market consortium for the administration of the exception in Rio de Janeiro.

Keyword: Mega Events. Exception. Invisibility.