The city and the World Cup: Exceptions of the state and the right

This paper intends to provide elements for analysis of the contemporary city and its transformations to receive a mega sports events: the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The text is based on the systematization proposed by Edward Soja (2008). Thus, [1] the processes of post-Fordist restructuring, [2] and the spatial segregation [3] the mechanisms of incarceration are important categories to understand the urban transformations in the cities that will host football matches in 2014.

We intend to identify the changes of the State and the Law to take care of the interests of the Fifa and the capital. Thus, the text will identify the rules recently approved, as well as public resources and infrastructure projects - all oriented by the demands of a private international organization.

These changes in the State, in Law and in the City tend to reproduce an urban entrepreneurialism (Harvey, 2005) and adopt rules of exception (Vainer, 2011). However, we call the debate right to the city (Lefebvre, 2001) and insurgent citizenship (Holston, 1996).

In the end, we hope to contribute a little to reveal the complex relationship between the City and the World Cup. Indeed, the capitalist restructuring, the socio-spatial segregation and the security mechanisms modify the urban space according to the interests of FIFA.

However, citizens insurgents congregate the transformative potential when they occupy the City and oppose the State and the Law that remained after the mega event in 2014.