Rio de Janeiro in a Mega-Event Hosting Context: the Role of the Public Authorities on Urban Segregation[Rio de Janeiro dans le contexte des méga-événements : le rôle des pouvoirs publics dans la ségrégation urbaine]

In Rio de Janeiro, the struggle for the occupation of urban space contributed early in his history to the apparition of contrasts between the housing conditions of rich and poor. This heterogeneous socio-spatial organization is a result of a set of factors: the particular geographical configuration, the rapid brazilian urban transition, the lack of housing policies, the liberal real-estate, which contributed to shape a very unequal access to urban spaces. In this article, we focus on the primary role of public powers that, historically, have focused their investments in the prized areas of the city. Public policies have also produced ambiguous policies toward favelas varying between eradication and integration. Today, this ambiguity is being reinforced by the urban transformations linked to the mega-events organization. While a policy tends to show an integration image – "pacification", improvements of basic services and economic and touristic development of some favelas – other policy shows a segregationist nature with the eradication of favelas and the re-housing of its populations in social habitation the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.