Rio de Janeiro and the city project based on the affirmation of hygiene as ideology

Abstract

Assuming that historical elements and facts can shed light on contemporary issues, this article aimed to understand how health crises caused by epidemics and more hostile diseases have affected the history of the city of Rio de Janeiro, especially in the early 20th century, until the coronavirus health crisis, as well as their city project. To do so, initially, the city will be problematized from the concepts of ville and cité, proposed by Richard Sennett. Subsequently, the hygienist urban reforms of Carlos Sampaio and Carlos Lacerda, at the beginning of the 20th century, which projected an image of a city inserted in the context of modernity, will be discussed, as well as the project of insertion of Rio de Janeiro in the current market of global cities, which has been designed over the last twenty years, and which culminated in the mega-events held in the capital at the beginning of the 21st century. What is observed is that Rio de Janeiro has lived, throughout its history, with moments of illness and health, with endemics, epidemics, and pandemics, as ruptures to disorient the daily rhythms, to highlight its contradictions and social, economic, and social weaknesses. In these moments, however, continuities or recurrences of issues related to inequality and social exclusion are observed; to fake news and exchanges of accusations between government bodies; the denial of specialized knowledge; to the economic and social crises, which arise at the gallop of health crises.