Resisting Olympic Evictions - by Adam Talbot (Paperback)

About the Book

Resisting Olympic evictions explores how one favela mobilised urban space to contest the logic underpinning removals in the glare of the mega-event's spotlight. Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Brazil, it provides instructive lessons on building democratic and just cities across the Global South.

Book Synopsis

By tracing the way evictions in a small community of around 600 families made news headlines all over the world, this book explores how activists in Rio protested against evictions at the Rio 2016 Olympics. They constructed the favela as safe, welcoming and homely, directly contesting the myth of marginality - the notion of favelas as havens of crime and poverty which is used to justify slum clearance. In doing so they were showcasing how a different kind of informal community rooted in security and belonging is possible, through a range of social events and other actions. Based on 14 months of fieldwork in Brazil, this book explores how this vision was constructed through collective action, transmitted around the world through both social and traditional media and how it lives on in the Evictions Museum that was created through the process.

From the Back Cover

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 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.

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.

Review Quotes

'Resisting Olympic Evictions captures the remarkable story of a plucky favela community that refused to get steamrolled by the Olympic machine. With precision and compassion, Adam Talbot reveals how the residents of Vila Autódromo stood up for their rights amid the glitzy spectacle of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.' - Jules Boykoff, Pacific University

'In Resisting Olympic Evictions: Contesting Space in Rio de Janeiro, Adam Talbot provides a rich ethnographic account of the most intense year (2015-2016) of Vila Autódromo's fight against removal... The book is a model of reflexive ethnographic research and writing' - Cerianne Robertson, Penn University

About the Author

Adam Talbot is a Lecturer in Event Management at the University of the West of Scotland