Postcards from Rio

New Postcards from Rio de Janeiro examines the interconnections between notions of citizenship and space in the works of favela-based cultural producers. It argues that the emphasis on the favela daily life generates an aesthetic of representation involved in the rewriting of the city as part of a process of political resistance and affirmation of difference.

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Through the analysis of a variety of favela-based visual cultural productions by young people and contemporary theorists, Postcards from Rio examines the complex relationship between citizenship and urban space in contemporary Rio de Janeiro.

By analyzing videos and photographs, Kátia da Costa Bezerra illustrates how citizens of favelas are reshaping their sense of belonging as subjects and as a legitimate part of the city. A groundbreaking study that examines more deeply the relationship between urban space, citizenship, and imagery originating in the favelas, Postcards from Rio sheds crucial light on how contemporary lenses are defining and mediating the meanings of space and citizenship as strategies of empowerment. The city emerges as a political space where multiplicities of perspectives are intertwined with demands for more inclusive forms of governance.