Rio 2016 and the right to the city: the Plano Popular da Vila Autódromo

The Comitê Popular da Copa e Olimpíadas do Rio de Janeiro, an umbrella group for protest against the Olympics, had a plethora of reasons for opposing the 2016 Olympic Games. These can be summed up as an attack on the right to the city, defined as not only the right to access urban resources, but the common right of citizens to change themselves by changing their city. This renders the argument in terms of democracy – while arguably democratically elected governments planned the reshaping of the urban environment, the lack of participatory planning processes tells a different story. This paper will focus on one specific planning process – the Plano Popular da Vila Autódromo, an award-winning plan for favela upgrades created through collaboration between residents and researchers at Rio’s universities. While the plan was, broadly speaking, ignored by City Hall, it showcased an alternative vision where citizens exercised their right to the city by participating in the planning of their city.