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Latest News
  • [ December 4, 2025 ] Portrait of a Centenary-Old Favela of Stilt Houses: Belém’s Vila da Barca Resists, Organizes and Fights for Sanitation and Adequate Housing #HousingWatch
  • [ November 30, 2025 ] The Story of Dona Pascoalina, Midwife and Healer of Morro do Borel by Community Contributors
  • [ November 15, 2025 ] ‘There’s No Such Thing as Normal After a Massacre’: One Week After Police Mega-Operation Kills 121 People, Residents From Complexos do Alemão and Penha Speak Out #UPPWatch
  • [ November 13, 2025 ] ‘Human Beings Forget That They Are Nature’: Favelas Teach the Path to the Future at the 2nd Favela Sustainability Festival Civil Society
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] Food Sovereignty and Culinary Heritage Connect with Fight for Climate Justice at the 2nd Sustainable Favela Festival Civil Society
HomePolicy Critique

Policy Critique

#HousingWatch

Gated Communities and Gating Communities: The Future of Urban Development in Rio?

By Caitlin Dixon • October 16, 2014

Clique aqui para Português This post is the first of three RioOnWatch contributions to Blog Action Day 2014 in which bloggers around the world reflect on this year’s theme: Inequality. Check out our series of […]

*Highlight

Despite Questions, Presidential Candidates Lean on Federal Housing Program for Electoral Support

By Sara McTarnaghan • October 3, 2014

Clique aqui para Português In 2009, a new federal housing program, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) or My Life My House, redirected resources for housing and local development in urban Brazil towards mass-construction of public housing. […]

#Rio2016

Morar Carioca: The Dismantling of a Dream Favela Upgrading Program

By Kate Steiker-Ginzberg • September 10, 2014

Clique aqui para Português This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (Tampa, FL. April 2014) An architect recently described the Morar Carioca […]

Research & Analysis

UPPs and Spatial and Symbolic Segregation in Rio

By Désirée Poets • July 7, 2014

Since the period of transition from military dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s and 80s, Rio de Janeiro’s reputation for social, political and spatial division has only become more consolidated. The city became infamous for its […]

*Highlight

Rio’s BRT System: A Tool for Legacy or Fragmentation?

By Stefan Johnson • May 27, 2014

Clique aqui para Português In a country that has seen the number of cars more than double in the last decade, and in what is now Brazil’s most congested city, Rio de Janeiro’s four planned BRT (Bus […]

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In May 2010, Catalytic Communities launched what was originally Rio Olympics Neighborhood Watch (hence RioOnWatch), a program to bring visibility to favela community voices in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. This news site, RioOnWatch.org, grew into a much-needed and unique reference featuring favela perspectives on the urban transformation of Rio. With diverse and deeply interlinked articles by a mix of community reporters, resident opinions, solidarity reporters, international observers, and academic researchers, we work to engender a more accurate picture of favelas, their contributions to the city, and the potential of favela-led community development in Rio and around the world.

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Fundação Heinrich Böll Brasil
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Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
SDSU Behner Stiefel Center
The Rio Times
Forum Grita Baixada
Beto Paixão Graphic Design
Architecture Museum of Vienna
Yale School of Architecture

  • Home
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    • Sanitation
  • Violations
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    • Government Neglect
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