Pacifying the Empire of Love: Sport, Spectacle, Security in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This essay examines the confluence of sport, spectacle and security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by juxtaposing scandals involving two football players, Vagner Love and Adriano, with policies attempting to secure Rio de Janeiro in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, especially the favela “pacification” policy. The scandals involving Vagner Love and Adriano centered on questions of race and social class, discipline, and urban space, leading to media-driven concern about security in contemporary Rio and, more broadly, about the shifting nature of structures of class, race and gender in post neoliberal Brazil. I argue that attentiveness to how concerns about class, race and place play themselves out in the arena of media commentary on soccer can help to draw attention to less visible anxieties about the favela “pacification” policy. More broadly, they illustrate anxieties about modes of governance and how these might impact Brazil’s performance on a global stage.