Políticas da Ordem: poder e imaginação na criação da cidade olímpica

Abstract

The strategies of urban marketing involve the creation of cities’ images which are able to promote them as commodities, so that they could attract investments and legitimize new projects before the population. This study aims to reformulate the criticism towards these images formulated according to the logic of marketing through a new approach that does not treat them only as devices to hide a “more” real city; once this understanding may neglect the capacity of these images as ways to see, to realize, to feel and to express the city. In this sense, the thinking that guides this study attempts to analyze the context of the recent construction of the official imaginary of Rio de Janeiro, adopting as the main object the role of the Special Secretariat of Public Order (Secretaria Especial da Ordem Pública), throughout the analysis of publicly available official texts, especially those regarding the communication with the population. From this approach, these order policies were seen not only as repressive, but also as power mechanisms which can create images that are able to produce reality; in other words, images that can, and intend to, make the meanings that constitute what is understood as city work.