Alterglobalisation and the IOC: protest at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

The Olympic Games are presented as the apotheosis of human progress and peace. This PhD will explore why this apparently progressive event provokes protest wherever it goes, by examining a range of organisations critical of the Rio 2016 Games. This will involve a year-long period of ethnographic fieldwork in Brazil, working with a diverse range of groups, from those who are outright anti-Olympic, to those who are critical of specific aspects of the Games. Thus, this project will provide an overview of activism at the Rio Olympics, providing insights into how the popularity of the Olympics serves to demobilize activists, and what possibilities there are for activists to achieve their goal. The project will also consider the long-term implications for social movements in Rio, considering whether the Olympics act as a lightening rod for activism, bringing new populations into contentious politics, and whether this can be considered a legacy (albeit unintended) of the Olympic Games. It has been noted at previous Olympic events that protest against the Olympics tends to involve a coalition of left-wing groups with environmental and social concerns, and right-wing groups with governmental spending concerns. How these individuals work together at the everyday level on a collaborative political project despite deep-seated political differences will be a further line of enquiry for the project.