Urban revitalization between proper and improper consumption: insights from Downtown Rio de Janeiro

Source abstract

Since the 1990s, critical urban scholarship has examined how revitalization strategies mobilize consumption to build consensus around policy agendas, yet much of this work has largely focused on Northern urban contexts. This paper broadens the debate by analyzing Downtown Rio de Janeiro, where an ambitious revitalization campaign leverages curated commercial and cultural activities to reshape urban perceptions and attract/fix investments. We seek to show how this strategy reinforces hierarchies of spaces, practices, and subjects of consumption. Through an analysis of relevant documents and statements by local state representatives and stakeholders, we trace how consumption-led revitalization in the South American context is premised on dynamics of territorial destigmatization, revealing emerging moral geographies that delineate “proper” and “improper” consumption circuits, thus legitimizing the marginalization of social groups from the revitalizing effort. In particular, local street vendors become targets of heightened regulation and surveillance, as official discourse links their presence to crime and disorder. This has theoretical implications for debates on citizenship and belonging, as consumption-led development strategies redefine social presences and activities in the city.