Bezerra, Kátia da Costa. Postcards from Rio; Favelas and the Contested Geographies of Citizenship. Fordham UP, 2017.

Abstract

By analyzing mostly visual contemporary cultural production (such as photographs or videos) from Rio’s favelas, Bezerra points to ways in which favela residents themselves provide rich material that challenges the portrayal of their communities in the mainstream media, where they are often criminalized and marginalized. Written with the backdrop of the city’s preparations for hosting the FIFA World Cup, Olympic and Paralympic games, Postcards from Rio is also a testimony to the detrimental effects of the commodification of space that occurs when the state prioritizes a city’s brand image over its citizens.