The Wall is the News: Discourse of Order and Eco-limits in the Santa Marta Favela

Abstract

In public policy concerning the Santa Marta favela, located in the southern Rio
de Janeiro, eco-limits have different meanings to different actors resulting in intense debate. A limiting wall designating the eco-limits to expansion of the favela gained visibility and joined other state actions attempting to change the slum's morphology. These actions arebased on images of the favela, the city, the forest and the wall which project spatial reordering. The relations between different spatial orders are re-signified as they are put into play by the construction of eco-limits. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this new scenario, suggesting that the idea of order as a structural element is a key concept at work  in journalistic accounts published in the O Globo newspaper.