Heritage, memory, and power in the contemporary city: disputes, coloniality, and urban transformations in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This article analyzes cultural heritage as a political, social, and spatial process linked to disputes over memory and the production of the contemporary city, focusing on Rio de Janeiro. Based on an interdisciplinary literature review and critical analysis of emblematic urban cases, the study discusses how patrimonialization processes reproduce selective structures associated with the coloniality of power and the legitimization of hegemonic narratives. Grounded in heritage studies, urban theory, and decolonial thought, the article problematizes the tensions between preservation, urban transformation, and spatial justice, highlighting mechanisms of invisibilization affecting Black, peripheral, and popular territories, while advocating for critical, inclusive, and socially integrated heritage approaches.

It argues that processes of patrimonialization, historically structured by selective and exclusionary logics, have contributed to the consolidation of hegemonic narratives and the erasure of other socio-cultural experiences, especially those associated with Black and peripheral populations. Drawing on theoretical contributions from architecture, urban studies, and the social sciences, the article analyzes how built heritage operates as a mediator between past and present, while simultaneously being embedded in contemporary struggles over the right to the city.

In the case of Rio de Janeiro, emblematic examples are discussed to highlight both the valorization and neglect of heritage, revealing tensions between preservation, urban development, and spatial justice. The study concludes that heritage must be understood as a field of dispute and resignification, whose preservation requires critical, inclusive, and socially integrated approaches aligned with contemporary urban dynamics.