Image: General rehearsal of Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
Valued Difference. Cultural diversification and social hierarchies in Rio de Janeiro
Based upon the experiences and views of urban dwellers in Rio de Janeiro, who arrived in the last 10 years from West Africa and Southern Europe, this project investigates how they relate to their new surroundings and become part of an urban population that is culturally diverse and socially stratified in complex and historically laden ways. I ask how they find a place in the city and how they see their own position relative to other urban dwellers. An important aspect is their ability to compare to the experiences made in the places they grew up in and passed through. Also, they contextualise their current experience with their imaginations and hopes for the future. I investigate this evaluation process with ethnographic methods, mainly participant observation, open-ended interviews and a mobile phone app with which my interlocutors document and share their experiences and reflections. I shift perspectives on urban socialities in a rapidly changing city in the global south by way of inquiring into the most recent migration movements.
Funded by the Research Foundations - Flanders (FWO) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 665501 (2017-2020).