Entre muros - medo e insegurança na construção da cidade contemporânea. O fenómeno dos condomínios fechados no Rio de Janeiro: o caso da Barra da Tijuca

Abstract

The studyʼs object of this work is the gated communities as expression of privatization, and the response to social conflicts and the violence that characterizes the urban space of the contemporary city. The expansion of this phenomenon expresses one of the main feature of the current metropolitan dynamics, and founded in almost all the world cities. In a society where discrimination and hierarchy take creased shape, the speech of violence and the violence itself would necessarily be projected into the urban space. Thus, in order to show the real consequences that the adoption of fortification strategies inflect in the urban space, and the relationship of the citizens with it and between each other, we study the Brazilian reality in general, and, in particular, the region of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, where the fast process of urbanization evidences in extreme these assumptions. The aim is to study the gated communities as prestigious spaces associated almost exclusively to the upper classes, and as the reflection of the growing divergences in an urban society on a globalizationʼs influence. Through its analysis it will be possible to understand new hierarchies and social tensions that establish the differences as inequalities. The vision of the contemporary city as a space of chaos, fear and confrontation with the difference, is the basis that will allow us to frame the study of the condos, as well as to analyze the action of the different privatization strategies, exploring the contribution of both to the social isolation and to the desertion of the public space. Together, all this questions suggest a way to see the city, and a desire to find immediate answers to the current problems. However, will be this the ideal way of think the city? Is it right fragment the urban space on "micro realities" closed over a continuous territory? Will be "between walls" the solution for a concept as broad as fear?