Revista TOMO, São Cristóvão, v. 44, e23684, 2025

DOI:10.21669/tomo.v44.23684

Special Issue - Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic

and Ecological Pressure

E-ISSN:2318-9010 / ISSN:1517-4549

Special Issue

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze: technology, tourism, and

governance on Copacabana’s waterfront

Leticia Parente Ribeiro*1

Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis**2

Abstract

This article expands the notion of coastal squeeze beyond its traditional physical-ecological definition by

proposing the concept of sociotechnical coastal squeeze. Based on the case of Copacabana’s waterfront (Rio

de Janeiro, Brazil), we argue that the Technical-Scientific-Informational Milieu (MTCI) intensifies the com-

pression of public space. Methodologically, the analysis articulates the history of spatial fixes with the inter-

pretation of contemporary spatial arrangements (longitudinal, transversal, vertical). Results demonstrate

that, beyond physical infrastructure, an informational squeeze—a mesh of digital platforms, surveillance

systems, and public-private partnerships—governs beach uses, driving commodification and platformiza-

tion. The Réveillon mega-event is analyzed as a laboratory for this technified governance, where new control

technologies are tested and normalized. We conclude that this sociotechnical dimension, defined by infor-

mational barriers, is fundamental to understanding contemporary challenges on global urbanized coasts.

Keywords: Sociotechnical Coastal Squeeze; Urban Waterfront; Technified Governance; Spatial Fix; Copaca-

bana.

*

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Geociências, Departamento de Geografia. Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janei-

ro, Brasil. E-mail: leticiapr@igeo.ufrj.br Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1185-4517 CrediT: Conceptualization; For-

mal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Visualization; Writing original draft, Review and Editing

** Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Geociências, Departamento de Geografia. Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro,

Brasil. E-mail: marcosgois@igeo.ufrj.br Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3197-1566 CRediT: Conceptualization; For-

mal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Visualization; Writing original draft; Review and Editing

1

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

Introduction: Réveillon as laboratory and the new normal of the Copacabana

Waterfront

Every December 31^st, the Copacabana waterfront in the city of Rio de Janeiro transforms into a glo-

bal stage for the New Year’s celebration. According to estimates from the Municipal Government,

the 2025 Réveillon event in Copacabana drew a crowd exceeding 2.6 million people and produced

an estimated economic impact of USD 500 million.¹

The 2025 spectacle added an aerial layer (a fleet of 400 to 500 drones) and an immersive layer (a

“laser ballet” projected from 20 sound towers) to the already traditional structures. These structu-

res consist of a pyrotechnic core (barges anchored at sea, from which the fireworks are launched)

and a musical performance core (large stages built on the sand strip).²

During the 2024-2025 transition, the focal experience promoted by fireworks and shows was

transformed into an “ambiance,” enveloping the public in a 360-degree arena. The presence of

cruise ships and private vessels,³forming a floating “VIP grandstand,” exemplifies this logic: the

operation not only expands public capacity but also segments it, creating an exclusive space of

consumption that reinforces the beach’s image as a platform for high-value tourism experiences.

The growing sophistication of the spectacle operates in symbiosis with the control apparatus and

surveillance infrastructure. The number of Military Police observation towers on the waterfront

jumped from 30 in 2019 and 2023 to 61 in 2024, peaking at 78 in 2025. Even more significant

was the change in control technology. Checkpoints, which in 2019 relied on physical pat-downs

and metal detectors, were equipped with facial recognition cameras starting in 2024. This appro-

ach was consolidated with the deployment of a Mobile Integrated Command and Control Center

and an advanced base for the Rio Operations Center (COR-Rio) in 2025 (Agência Brasil, 2019 and

2024).

Simultaneously, the event’s production evolved from tactical sponsorship to strategic co-produc-

tion, formalized by a multi-year contract (2025-2027) worth over USD 3 million with the SRCOM

agency and by the creation of a continuous marketing platform called “Rio Réveillon.”⁴These ac-

tions attracted institutional sponsors such as Petrobras and Banco do Brasil, which began finan-

cing the event. By investing massively in security, the Municipal Government seeks to produce

a predictable, low-risk environment, which in turn becomes the product commercialized by the

private partner.

The transformations observed in recent years at the Copacabana Réveillon party were drastically

accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The health crisis provided social and political justification

1

“Réveillon Rio 2025: Mais de cinco milhões de pessoas celebram a chegada do Ano Novo na maior virada do mundo”. Pre-

feitura do Rio de Janeiro, 01/01/2025. Available on: https://prefeitura.rio/cidade/reveillon-rio-2025-mais-de-cinco-mi -

lhoes-de-pessoas-celebram-a-chegada-do-ano-novo-na-maior-virada-do-mundo. Accessed on: December 8^th, 2025.

“Prefeitura apresenta planejamento operacional para o Réveillon 2025”. Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro, 26/12/2024. Availab-

2

le on: https://prefeitura.rio/cidade/prefeitura-apresenta-planejamento-operacional-para-o-reveillon-2025. Accessed on:

December 8^th, 2025.

“Réveillon de Copacabana receberá seis navios de cruzeiro e 300 barcos”. Agência Brasil, 26/12/2024. Available on: https://

3

agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2024-12/reveillon-de-copacabana-recebera-seis-navios-de-cruzeiro-e-300-bar -

cos. Accessed on: December 8^th, 2025.

“SRCOM apresenta a marca Rio Réveillon com nova plataforma de comunicação e ativações para patrocinadores”. Diário do

4

Rio, 18/12/2024. Available on: https://diariodorio.com/srcom-apresenta-a-marca-rio-reveillon-com-nova-plataforma -

-de-comunicacao-e-ativacoes-para-patrocinadores. Accessed on: December 8^th, 2025.

2

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

for control technologies, which might have faced years of public debate, to be adopted under the

aegis of security. The normalization of these surveillance practices legitimized a new paradigm of

crowd management that persists and deepens with each new edition of the event.

Furthermore, the governance model observed at Réveillon no longer constitutes an annual excep-

tion but rather a laboratory from which a “new normal” for the territorial ordering of Copacabana

beach is being consolidated. The technologies, governance models, and public-private partner-

ships tested during the event are progressively disseminated into the daily management of the

waterfront. The connection between the exceptional and the quotidian materializes, for example,

in the linkage between the facial recognition cameras used at the year-end event and the perma-

nent surveillance systems installed in the kiosks along the city’s southern zone waterfronts since

late 2024.⁵

The Copacabana Réveillon transcends a mere celebration. It constitutes, in the sense defined by

geographer Milton Santos, an “event”—that is, a moment of rupture that reveals and materializes

the profound logics organizing contemporary space (Santos, 1996). In the current historical pe-

riod, that of the Technical-Scientific-Informational Milieu (MTCI), space is produced, again accor-

ding to Santos (1996), by the indissoluble union of Technique (as seen, for example, in the use of

drones, lasers, and facial recognition systems), Science (as in the case of predictive crowd mana-

gement), and Information (instantiated, for example, in real-time data flows to command centers).

This article argues that, in the current period, the dynamics associated with the diffusion of the

Technical-Scientific-Informational Milieu—which are evidenced and amplified in the Réveillon

event—result in a compression of the coastal ecosystems and public uses of the Copacabana wa-

terfront. We term this process the sociotechnical coastal squeeze.

We employ the qualifier “sociotechnical” to suggest that the Copacabana waterfront should be

analyzed not as a passive context but as an assemblage, in the terms of Bruno Latour (2005) and

John Law (2019): an unstable “material-semiotic web” whose current form is the performative

effect of associations between heterogeneous actors (human and non-human). In the current pe-

riod, the dynamics associated, on one hand, with the pressure of the globalized tourism economy

and commercial interests and, on the other, with the increasingly rigid and technologically reinfor-

ced barrier of state control infrastructure and private governance, contribute to this sociotechnical

coastal squeeze.

To understand this process, we will analyze certain geo-historical aspects of Copacabana’s seaside

urbanization, as well as recent transformations of the waterfront associated with the vectors of

urban mobility, street vending, and tourism. These transformations will then be interpreted in li-

ght of the territorial configurations that constitute the Copacabana waterfront as a complex urban

interface.

5

“Orla Rio e Gabriel instalam mais de 150 câmeras na Zona Sul para reforçar segurança e turismo no Rio de Janeiro”. Orla

Rio, 29/10/2024. Available on: https://www.orlario.com.br/curiosidades/orla-rio-e-gabriel-instalam-mais-de-150-came -

ras-na-zona-sul-para-reforcar-seguranca-e-turismo-no-rio-de-janeiro. Accessed on: December 8^th, 2025.

3

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

The coastal squeeze: from infrastructural fixity to informational compression

The notion of coastal squeeze describes the narrowing of coastal habitats compressed between

rising sea levels and the expansion of urban infrastructure. The academic literature (Doody, 2013;

Pontee, 2013; Borchert et al. 2018; Lithgow, 2019; Silva et al., 2020; Aguilar et al., 2021) conver-

ges on the understanding that this “compression” is aggravated by long-term anthropic processes,

such as the fixation of the coastline by constructions, which prevent the natural adaptation of

ecosystems and result in their degradation.

Coastal urbanization is a central factor in this process, as human constructions—such as buil-

dings, waterfronts, and ports—function as physical barriers that impede the natural migration

of habitats, resulting in their loss. Tourism, as a vector of coastal urbanization, intensifies this

dynamic because the construction of hotels and other infrastructure frequently occurs along the

coastline, reinforcing the rigidity of the built barrier. Studies such as those by Lithgow et al. (2019)

and Aguilar et al. (2021) demonstrate the strong correlation between tourism expansion and the

aggravation of coastal squeeze.

A contradictory cycle is thus created, as tourism is affected by the very conditions it helps to pro-

duce. The reduction in beach width and the loss of ecosystems diminish the natural attractiveness

of destinations, while greater vulnerability to extreme weather events increases the risk for tou-

rism facilities. To mitigate these effects, coastal engineering interventions are employed, such as

artificial beach nourishment (Doody, 2004). However, such measures are costly and do not alwa-

ys represent long-term solutions, potentially generating negative impacts in other areas (Pontee,

2011).

We propose, however, that the physical compression emphasized by the coastal squeeze concept,

while fundamental, is today supplemented and intensified by an “informational squeeze.” While

the physical squeeze is defined by the compression of the beach territory between engineering in-

frastructures and rising sea levels, the informational squeeze describes the compression of public

uses and social practices exerted by the “technology stack” (Kitchin, 2016) that governs urbanized

coastal zones today.

This informational squeeze does not compress the territory physically, but rather the actions per-

mitted within it. It operates vertically through the layers of what Kitchin (2016) defines as the

sociotechnical assemblage, formed by the association between: 1) the “material platform” (consti-

tuted, for example, by facial recognition cameras, sensors, and fiber optic cables); 2) the “data” and

“algorithm” layers that monitor, manage, and regulate flows in real-time; and 3) the “interface,”

which translates the beach into a manageable asset through control and consumption applica-

tions. “Technified governance” is, therefore, the engine of this informational squeeze.

We will proceed from this conceptual expansion to analyze how the coastal squeeze phenomenon

is instantiated on the Copacabana waterfront, in Rio de Janeiro.

4

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

The historical production of the waterfront: crises and spatial fixes of capital in

Copacabana

Despite the loss of approximately 17,000 residents between the 2010 and 2022 census surveys,⁶

Copacabana remains one of the municipality’s most populous neighborhoods and has one of its

highest demographic densities (Figure 1). The neighborhood’s concentration of population and

tourism, reinforced in recent years by the advance of Airbnb-type ventures (Andrade et al., 2024),

is also reflected in a concentration of facilities and services created along the waterfront. This

density of services and urban infrastructure is both a result and a determinant of the process

of seaside urbanization, that is, the articulated production of spatial forms and social practices

linked to the valorization and ordering of coastal zones (Vidal e Gomes, 2019). Initiated in the late

19^thcentury, this seaside urbanization consolidated Copacabana beach as a laboratory for urban

experimentation and an icon of carioca modernity (Parente-Ribeiro and Gomes, 2021).

Figure 1. Population density – Southern Zone of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, 2022

Source: Prepared by the authors based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and Data-Rio, 2022.

6

According to the data from the demographic censuses compiled by Data-Rio, the population of the Copacabana neigh-

borhood went from 146,392 in 2010 to 128,919 in 2022. The information is available on: https://www.data.rio/

apps/0486a2d8fdb241d68395c24e662c48bb/explore. Accessed on: December 8^th, 2025.

5

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

As a result of the seaside urbanization process, the Copacabana waterfront constitutes a consoli-

dated urban infrastructural system, whose fixity contributes to the coastal squeeze phenomenon.

However, this physical barrier is not a static structure but a provisional material-semiotic syn-

thesis that temporarily stabilizes the “movement of association” among heterogeneous elements

(Latour, 2005). Understanding it requires moving beyond the fixity of its forms to analyze it as a

dynamic palimpsest, a temporary territorial configuration in which successive logics of capital

accumulation are inscribed.

The historical evolution of the waterfront can be reinterpreted as a sequence of “spatial fixes,” a

concept developed by David Harvey (2001). Each major transformation represents a temporary

geographical and/or structural solution to a crisis of capital over accumulation. Simultaneously,

each fix, by “fixing” capital into a new territorial configuration, generates new contradictions that,

in turn, require future rounds of “creative destruction” and spatial reorganization.

This process will be analyzed based on three associated historical syntheses: 1) the city’s expan-

sion in the first decades of the 20^thcentury, 2) the artificial nourishment of Copacabana beach in

the 1970s, and 3) the emergence of a new waterfront management model in the last decade of the

20^thcentury.

The history of the waterfront as we know it begins with the first major crisis that capital faced

in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19^thcentury: a crisis of spatial limits. The urban core, compressed

between the sea and the rocky massifs, offered few opportunities for new profitable investments,

especially for real estate capital and elites seeking new spaces of social distinction. The seaside

urbanization process, driven by the “urbanization/salubrity” dyad (O’Donnell, 2013), emerged

as the spatial fix for this crisis, transforming a remote area into a new and lucrative frontier for

accumulation. For this frontier to become accessible, a massive investment in fixed capital was

necessary. The opening of the Túnel Velho (Old Tunnel) in 1892 and the subsequent creation of a

streetcar network were the founding acts of this fix, “annihilating” the mountain’s spatial barrier

and connecting the isolated periphery to the consolidated urban fabric.

The construction of Avenida Atlântica (Atlantic Avenue), approved in 1905 and inaugurated in

1908, was the main instrument to produce the waterfront as a modern and orderly space. More

than just a thoroughfare, the avenue was a “regulatory device,” imposing a rational order on the

coastline by establishing a clear boundary between private property and public areas, creating a

“front” of high valorization (Parente-Ribeiro and Gomes, 2001).

The success of the first synthesis generated the conditions for its own crisis. By the mid-20^thcen-

tury, fixed capital (represented, for example, by the buildings, hotels, and Avenida Atlântica itself)

was threatened by coastal dynamics. The periodic storm surges caused erosion and endangered

the accumulated value, becoming a recurring “public problem” (Cefaï, 2018). Simultaneously, the

tourism model evolved into a mass phenomenon, and the original sand strip, 55 to 61 meters

wide, became a bottleneck limiting the sector’s growth. The physical landscape was now inade-

quate for the new scale of accumulation.

The response to this double crisis was one of Brazil’s most ambitious urban engineering projects:

the artificial beach nourishment, completed in 1971. The second historical synthesis of the Copa-

cabana waterfront thus resulted from a “geomorphological fix” that used technology to, literally,

produce new territory. The project, coordinated by the Superintendence of Urbanization and Sa-

6

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

nitation of the State of Guanabara (SURSAN)⁷, involved dredging approximately 3.5 million cubic

meters of sand, increasing the beach’s width by an average of 85 meters. The work was accompa-

nied by the duplication of Avenida Atlântica and the creation of the iconic boardwalk with landsca-

ping by Roberto Burle Marx (Silva and Lins-de-Barros, 2021).

By widening the beach, the intervention created a buffer zone that protected pre-existing fixed

capital and, simultaneously, generated a platform for the mass tourism economy, enabling the con-

solidation of mega-events like Réveillon.

Although presented as a work of public interest, the Copacabana landfill can be reinterpreted as

a state subsidy to private capital. The State socialized the costs and risks of a highly complex in-

tervention to, in practice, guarantee the security and valorization of private assets (hotels, apart-

ments). The resulting gains, such as the exponential increase in real estate values and greater reve-

nues for the event industry, were largely privatized. The geomorphological fix thus demonstrates

the active role of the State in producing the spatial conditions necessary for capital accumulation.

The third synthesis began to take shape in the 1990s, when the waterfront’s crisis was no longer

physical, but rather one of governance and efficiency in value extraction. The landscape, although

ample, was perceived as underutilized and disorganized from a commercial standpoint, a missed

opportunity in the new global context of competition between cities and the rise of the “corporate

city” model. The solution was a “regulatory fix,” accompanied by a profound restructuring of the

waterfront’s management. The Projeto Rio Orla in 1992 represented the first step, restructuring

the physical space to make it more conducive to organized consumption. The standardization of

kiosks, the implementation of a bicycle path, and improved lighting were not mere aesthetic in-

terventions; they were investments in a new “consumption infrastructure.” Lighting, for example,

extended the beach’s commercial life into the nighttime, creating a new spatiotemporal frontier

for accumulation (Lins-de-Barros and Parente-Ribeiro, 2018).

The culmination of this fix occurred with the transfer of the kiosks’ management to the private

concessionaire Orla Rio Associados in 1999, transforming the commercial use of public space into

a private asset. The standardization of kiosks proved to be a key technology of accumulation: a

uniform asset is easier to manage, price, and package into a large-scale concession contract, while

simultaneously exerting social control by displacing informal economies that do not fit the model.

From geographical expansion to geomorphological production and regulatory restructuring, the

historical sequence of spatial fixes resolved successive crises, but also produced a new one: that

of physical space saturation. Having exhausted the possibilities of horizontal expansion and ma-

nagerial optimization, the logic of accumulation now turns toward the vertical and informational

intensification of the existing space. This transition establishes the foundations for the emergence

of the sociotechnical coastal squeeze, a process that will be deepened by post-pandemic accelera-

tions.

7

State of Guanabara (1960–1975): A former Brazilian federative unit corresponding to the city of Rio de Janeiro. Established

after the national capital moved to Brasília, it functioned as a city-state until merging with the surrounding State of Rio de

Janeiro in 1975.

7

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

Post-pandemic accelerations: intensification of uses and digitalization of the Waterfront

The Covid-19 pandemic functioned as a catalyst for transformations on the Copacabana water-

front, generating a dual movement. On one hand, the health crisis reinforced the centrality of the

beach as a space for leisure and sociability, making it even more valued in the collective imagina-

tion (Góis et al., 2022). On the other, social distancing measures paralyzed the beach economy,

severely impacting traditional workers, such as barraqueiros (beach stall operators) and itinerant

vendors, who saw their source of income temporarily disappear (Laurindo-Santos et al., 2020).

The gradual reopening, marked by protests and negotiations between street vendors and the Mu-

nicipal Government, did not signify a return to the previous state, but rather the consolidation of a

new level of use and dispute over the space. The economic shock drove an accelerated adaptation

and reorganization of beach commerce. The crisis forced the rapid digitalization of transactions,

with the mass adoption of payments via PIX and the use of social media for marketing and conduc-

ting deliveries (Laurindo-Santos et al., 2020).

A reorganization of business models and political representation was also observed. The mateiros

(the traditional mate tea vendors) organized into an association and secured the first formal li-

censes for their category (Baranda-Oliveira, 2023), while the barraqueiros (stalls) deepened their

integration with the tourism chain, establishing partnerships with travel agencies (Laurindo-San-

tos, 2025).

The valorization of open spaces in the post-pandemic period (Abdullah et al., 2023; Marvin et

al., 2023) attracted not only the usual beachgoers and workers but also new and powerful eco-

nomic agents. Hotels, tourism companies, and the Municipal Government itself began to see the

waterfront as a frontier for expanding their services—installing equipment, promoting events,

and establishing partnerships that increased the density of activities, amplifying the pressure on

an already “compressed” territory.

The expansion of economic interests on the waterfront after the acute phase of the Covid-19 he-

alth crisis is concentrated, above all, in three vectors: mobility, commerce, and tourism. Although

active throughout the entire process of seaside urbanization in the Copacabana neighborhood, the

current historical phase of the Technical-Scientific-Informational Milieu and post-pandemic acce-

lerations have entailed a profound reorganization of the systems of objects and systems of actions

articulated based on the logics characterizing these vectors.

The vectors of the sociotechnical squeeze: mobility, commerce, and tourism

Mobility as a vector of connection and segmentation of flows

Historically, the consolidation of Copacabana as a tourist destination was tied to the evolution of its

mobility systems. From the arrival of streetcars in the late 19^thcentury, through the primacy of the

automobile with Avenida Atlântica, to the expansion of buses and the arrival of the metro, each new

transportation system reconfigured the accessibility, land value, and usage patterns of the water-

front, progressively integrating it more fully with the metropolis (Abreu, 1997; O’Donnell, 2013).

During the 1980s, the expansion of urban bus lines broadened access to the neighborhood for

different segments of the population from Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding state. This new

8

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

configuration permitted the intensification of informal economic activities on the beach—such as

street vending and seasonal services—and contributed to the popularization of the beach space,

without, however, diminishing the tensions and disputes over the waterfront’s use. Today, bus

stops run along almost the entire length of the Copacabana neighborhood, especially Avenida Nos-

sa Senhora de Copacabana and Rua Barata Ribeiro, serving as a means of articulation between the

city’s South, North, and West Zones (Figure 2).

Then, in the 1990s and 2000s, the inauguration of the Cardeal Arcoverde and Siqueira Campos

metro stations inserted Copacabana more integrally into the metropolitan transport system, rein-

forcing its centrality and making access to the beach even more efficient, especially for tourists

and workers who circulate daily through the city. In addition to the two stations mentioned, Copa-

cabana also benefits from two other stations—Cantagalo and General Osório—which connect the

neighborhood to other areas of the city, while also segmenting the flows of visitors and workers

that occupy its beach arc (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Transportation and Mobility System – Copacabana and Leme, Rio de Janeiro, 2025.

Source: Prepared by the authors based on data from Data-Rio, Bike Itaú, and Whoosh, 2025.

More recently, micromobility systems, such as public bicycle rentals and electric scooters, have

begun to play a symbolic and functional role in renewing the neighborhoods’ urban image. These

services, promoted through public-private partnerships, enhance the tourist experience by offering

light and sustainable travel along the waterfront. Although accessible to some extent to the local

9

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

population, these systems primarily cater to a middle- and upper-class visitor profile, reinforcing

urban marketing strategies that reposition the city as a modern, connected, and ecological tourist

destination. Like the other urban mobility services, bicycles and scooters are regularly distributed

throughout the neighborhoods, but with a high concentration on the blocks near the beach arc.

The evolution of urban mobility systems in Copacabana has not only shaped forms of access and

circulation through the neighborhood, but has also structured the economic uses of the coastal

strip. By connecting infrastructure, tourism, and land valorization, these systems have contribu-

ted to the consolidation of a beach economy model that is highly dependent on mobility and per-

manently tensioned between public and private interests.

Beach commerce: from regulated fixity to the circuits of the urban economy

The monumental artificial beach nourishment project in Copacabana, completed in 1971, repre-

sented more than an engineering solution: it produced new territory, inaugurating a cycle of dispu-

tes for its economic appropriation. This space reconfigured beach commerce, which, historically,

had been sporadic and restricted to elite establishments (Parente-Ribeiro and Gomes, 2021). With

the massification of beach use, an itinerant and informal commerce emerged, and its repression

by public authorities through “crackdown operations” (‘rapa’) (Teixeira, 2024) proved insufficient

after the widening of the sand strip.

The vast spatial subsidy for the informal economy forced the State to rethink its control strategies.

In the 1970s, commercial logic transitioned from mobility to fixity, with vendors demarcating and

occupying specific locations (Teixeira, 2024). This transition soon configured itself as a “public

problem,” in the terms of Daniel Cefaï (2018), eliciting complaints of “unfair competition” from

established merchants and allegations of disorder from authorities. Paradoxically, fixity, initially

seen as the problem, was co-opted as a tool of governance: a fixed point is more legible and, there-

fore, easier to register, inspect, and tax.

A long process of negotiation, conflict, and selective repression culminated in the gradual regula-

tion of commerce, consolidated by legal milestones such as Law N°. 804 of 1985, which authorized

the executive branch to grant fixed points on the sand strip to the barraqueiros (Teixeira, 2024).

This regulation process consolidated a clear stratification of commerce on the waterfront, mate-

rializing the theory of the two circuits of the urban economy by Milton Santos (2004).

On the sand strip, the barraqueiros (stalls) were established, operating under an individual con-

cession model and characterized as family businesses with low capital and intensive labor, typical

traits of the lower circuit. On the boardwalk, meanwhile, the kiosks, managed by the concessionai-

re Orla Rio and operated on a corporate model, represent the upper circuit, demanding high ca-

pital investment and relying on permanent and complex infrastructures. Copacabana beach thus

became a microcosm of the urban economy, where the two circuits coexist in a visible relationship

of complementarity and competition (Figure 3).

This ecosystem, which moves approximately USD 650 million annually and concentrates 34% of

the 2,189 licensed beach merchants in the municipality (Laurindo-Santos, 2025), is not an encla-

ve. Its circuits connect the waterfront to a vast metropolitan network of production, logistics, and

labor, extending from depots in favelas to supply centers, becoming an inseparable component of

Copacabana’s “tourism product.”

10

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

The post-pandemic scenario, as we have seen, intensified the disputes for the economic ex-

ploitation of the waterfront. The “boom” in sand sports, such as beach tennis, introduced a

new actor that demands large areas, heightening the competition for territory with the barra-

queiros. In response, the public authorities launched a new and rigorous waterfront ordering

decree in May 2025. The measure generated immediate protests from workers, forcing the

city to relax some rules and demonstrating that the regulation of the beach remains a field of

intense negotiation and dispute, now reconfigured by the recent technological, economic, and

social accelerations.

Figure 3. Commerce and Service Facilities – Copacabana and Leme, Rio de Janeiro, 2025.

Source: Prepared by the authors based on data from Data-Rio, 2023 and OpenStreet MAP, 2025.

Tourism as a platform: technified governance and the production of the

waterfront-product

The tourism vector of the Copacabana-Leme beach arc, consolidated as a national symbolic refe-

rence, has been strategically repositioned as a central asset for the city’s marketing. This transi-

tion materializes in space through a dense infrastructure of services (kiosks, hotels, stalls) that

converts the waterfront into a “product,” the management of which is guided by the logic of urban

entrepreneurialism. This model reconfigures the beach economy, where international tourism,

which is capital-intensive and focused on mega-events, interacts with domestic tourism articula-

ted by more flexible and informal networks.

11

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

The post-pandemic dynamic accelerated the convergence of these circuits. Formal actors, notably

the hotel chains, expanded their operations onto the sand strip by acquiring kiosks, installing

exclusive equipment, and forming partnerships with regularized barraqueiros. This advance ins-

titutes a governance by interdependence: formal capital co-opts and standardizes services from

the lower circuit, extending its brand and quality control over a public space. The beach begins to

operate as a platform, a hierarchical commercial ecosystem that, although integrating different

agents, privileges the scale and predictability of formal businesses.

This platformization is enabled by a regulatory fix aligned with the “corporate city” model. The

transfer of the waterfront’s management to private concessionaires, such as Orla Rio Associados

(Andreatta, 2019), represents the institutionalization of this logic. In this context, the standardiza-

tion of equipment and the successive regulations of street vending are not neutral acts of ordering,

but rather tools that make the public space legible and suitable for large-scale commercial mana-

gement. The State acts as a market facilitator, preparing the ground for private exploitation and

the production of mega-events, such as Réveillon and international concerts, which temporarily

reconfigure the entire local dynamic.

The sustainability of this waterfront-product ultimately depends on a sophisticated layer of “techni-

fied governance” (Graham and Marvin, 2022). The progressive installation of monitoring cameras,

sensors, and facial recognition systems—many operated via public-private partnerships—transfor-

ms the beach into a showcase of technological control. Major events function as urban laboratories

where these devices for crowd management and behavioral modeling are tested at high intensity,

before being normalized into daily management. This infrastructure, centralized in command hubs

like COR-Rio, produces an environment of security and predictability that is, in itself, a commerciali-

zable product. It is this capacity for control that diminishes risk for investors and sponsors, guaran-

teeing the conditions for the waterfront’s operation as a global consumption platform.

The anatomy of the sociotechnical squeeze: spatial arrangements as interpretive keys

The geographical analysis of the sociotechnical system that territorially configures the Copaca-

bana waterfront can be guided by the interpretation of three complementary types of spatial ar-

rangements: longitudinal, transversal, and vertical. Far from being merely descriptive categories,

these arrangements function as axes of interpretation that reveal the functional and symbolic

complexity of this territory. They articulate systems of objects (technical networks, equipment,

buildings, vehicles, etc.) and systems of actions (the social, economic, and political practices that

give them meaning), as proposed by Milton Santos (1996). By articulating these three axes, it is

possible to apprehend the beach not as a residual natural space, but as a complex urban interface,

intensely produced and continuously reorganized by economic, political, and technological dyna-

mics, thereby qualifying the coastal squeeze process based on its sociotechnical dimension.

The longitudinal arrangements, which follow the beach arc, reveal a dual logic of standardization and

differentiation. Historically, the seaside urbanization process produced continuous and distinct zo-

nes—the avenue, the boardwalk, and the sand strip—establishing a linear order and a spatial classifi-

cation of uses. This logic is intensified today by the diffusion of the Technical-Scientific-Informational

Milieu. The standardization of kiosks under the concession model, the regularity of the lifeguard sta-

tions, the continuity of the bicycle path, and the recent installation of a continuous Wi-Fi network and

surveillance systems integrated into the kiosks create a digital and observational continuum along the

entire waterfront. This standardization is not just an organizational choice; it functions as a precondi-

12

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

tion for managing the waterfront as a platform, where a uniform and predictable environment is more

easily digitized, monitored, and packaged into commercial and control products.

The transversal arrangements, in turn, reveal how the waterfront articulates with the nei-

ghborhood and the rest of the metropolis, connecting it to local and global flows. In the mobility

vector, these arrangements are mediated by metro stations, bus lines, and micromobility systems

that channel beachgoers and segment the occupations of the beach. The commerce vector, me-

anwhile, is organized based on supply chains that sustain the beach economy and materialize the

interpenetration of the two circuits of the urban economy (Santos, 2004).

As detailed by Laurindo-Santos et al. (2020), the logistics of the beach stall (lower circuit) com-

merce is a prime example of this form of spatial organization. The legislation requiring the nightly

removal of stall modules activates a network of informal depots and garages in streets adjacent to

the waterfront. Beverage supply operates on a dual temporality: emergency purchases at nearby

supermarkets and stock purchases at distant wholesalers. Regarding the tourism vector, the pos-

t-pandemic period has seen intensified connections between the hotel chains, the kiosks, and the

occupations on the sand strip. In the lower circuit, barraqueiros are investing in articulation with

small-scale tourism agents to attract visitors from other municipalities in the state of Rio de Ja-

neiro and from bordering states, demonstrating a new transversal articulation between the lower

circuit on the sand and the metropolitan tourism economy (Laurindo-Santos, 2025).

Finally, the analysis of the waterfront’s vertical arrangements unveils the hidden density of the

beach-infrastructure (Figure 4). On the surface, extending into the airspace, visible elements such

as lighting poles (A), surveillance cameras (B, F), Wi-Fi routers (C), kiosks (G), beach stalls (H), and

airplanes with advertising banners (N) compose the “scene” of consumption, leisure, and control.

In the subsoil, an invisible network of restrooms (I), depots (K), and support areas for the kiosks

(J) constitutes the essential infrastructure that guarantees the system’s operability.

Figure 4. Simplified vertical profile of the Copacabana waterfront, Rio de Janeiro, 2025.

A. Lighting poles and floodlights. B. Surveillance cameras. C. Wi-Fi router. D. Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). E. Access

stairs to the subsoil. F. Gabriel system security cameras. G. Kiosk. H. Beach stall. I. Restrooms. J. Kiosk support area. K. De-

pot and water tank. L. Lifeguard station. M. Lifeguard station support area. N. Airplane with advertisement.

Source: Prepared by the authors based on fieldwork conducted on the Copacabana waterfront in 2024 and 2025.

13

Leticia Parente Ribeiro; Marcos Paulo Ferreira Góis

The vertical arrangements of the waterfront also instantiate the “technology stack” mechanism

that, according to Kitchin (2016), constitutes the contemporary urban sociotechnical assembla-

ge. At the base is the “material platform”: the “trench of concrete, cables, and sensors.” Operating

above it are the “code platform,” “data,” and “algorithm” layers, such as the facial recognition and

logistics software that feed COR-Rio. At the top, visible to the user, is the “interface”: the Wi-Fi rou-

ters, information totems, and the kiosks’ consumption applications.

In this sense, the barrier compressing coastal ecosystems is not just the wall of buildings, but a

deep and technified informational infrastructure that makes space dependent on technological

systems and susceptible to centralized forms of governance.

Beyond engineering: the informational squeeze and the future of urban coastal zones

The analysis of the Copacabana waterfront’s spatial arrangements highlights the emergence of a

new synthesis that redefines the very concept of the “spatial fix.” While previous fixes (with the

opening of tunnels and the artificial beach nourishment) constituted classic spatial fixes—sta-

bilizations of fixed capital to resolve crises—the current synthesis responds to the saturation of

physical space differently. In this new synthesis, (provisional) stability is no longer guaranteed by

the concrete of engineering works, but by informational and regulatory intensification.

The characteristics of the current waterfront governance model are the segmentation of publics,

the commodification of every square meter of the waterfront, the platformization of services, the

production of immersive “experiences,” and the assembly and disassembly of ephemeral struc-

tures for events. This model is sustained by a hyper-connectivity that allows for the permanent

sensing and reading of individual and collective behaviors.

The phenomenon of the sociotechnical coastal squeeze manifests, therefore, not only in physical

compression but in an “informational squeeze.” The barrier to public use is no longer just the hard

infrastructure, but a mesh of regulations, registries, applications, and surveillance systems that

govern who can be in space, how, and when.

The Copacabana waterfront, with its complex interface between natural ecosystems and built spa-

ce, serves as a paradigm for thinking and acting upon the future of global urban coastal zones. The

processes observed here—the fusion of mass tourism, technified governance, and urban marke-

ting, and the management of public space as a commercial asset—are not a local particularity.

They point to a global trend. Understanding the dynamics of the sociotechnical coastal squeeze in

Copacabana thus offers a crucial lesson for other cities whose urban beaches face similar pressu-

res, converting them into vital arenas where the very definition of what constitutes a public space

in the 21^stcentury is forged and contested.

Funding

FAPERJ - Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro

14

Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

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Sociotechnical coastal squeeze

Coastal squeeze sociotécnico: tecnologia,

turismo e governança na orla de

Copacabana

Coastal squeeze sociotécnico: tecnología,

turismo y gobernanza en la orilla de

Copacabana

Resumo

Resumen

Este artigo expande a noção de coastal squeeze

para além da sua tradicional definição físico-eco-

lógica, ao propor o conceito de coastal squeeze so-

ciotécnico. A partir do caso da orla de Copacabana

(Rio de Janeiro), argumentamos que o Meio Téc-

nico-Científico-Informacional (MTCI) intensifica

a compressão do espaço público. Metodologica-

mente, a análise articula a história dos “ajustes es-

paciais” (spatial fixes) com a interpretação de ar-

ranjos espaciais contemporâneos (longitudinais,

transversais e verticais). Os resultados demons-

tram que, além da infraestrutura física, uma “com-

pressão informacional” (informational squeeze)

— uma malha de plataformas digitais, sistemas de

vigilância e parcerias público-privadas — governa

os usos da praia, impulsionando a comodificação

e a plataformização. O megaevento do Réveillon é

analisado como um laboratório para essa gover-

nança tecnificada, onde novas tecnologias de con-

trole são testadas e normalizadas. Conclui-se que

esta dimensão sociotécnica, definida por barreiras

informacionais, é fundamental para a compreen-

são dos desafios contemporâneos em costas urba-

nas globais.

Este artículo amplía la noción de coastal sque-

eze más allá de su tradicional definición físico-

ecológica, al proponer el concepto de coastal sque-

eze sociotécnico. Basado en el caso de la orilla de

Copacabana (Río de Janeiro, Brasil), argumenta-

mos que el Medio Técnico-Científico-Informacio-

nal (MTCI) intensifica la compresión del espacio

público. Metodológicamente, el análisis articula la

historia de los “ajustes espaciales” (spatial fixes)

con la interpretación de arreglos espaciales con-

temporáneos (longitudinales, transversales y ver-

ticales). Los resultados demuestran que, más allá

de la infraestructura física, una “compresión infor-

macional” (informational squeeze) —una malla

de plataformas digitales, sistemas de vigilancia

y alianzas público-privadas— gobierna los usos

de la playa, lo que impulsa la comodificación y la

plataformización. El megaevento de Réveillon se

analiza como un laboratorio para esta gobernanza

tecnificada, donde se prueban y normalizan nue-

vas tecnologías de control. Se concluye que esta

dimensión sociotécnica, definida por barreras in-

formacionales, es fundamental para comprender

los desafíos contemporáneos en las costas urba-

nas globales.

Palavras-chave: Coastal Squeeze Sociotécnico;

Orla Urbana; Governança Tecnificada; Ajuste Es-

pacial; Copacabana.

Palabras clave: Coastal Squeeze Sociotécnico;

Orla Urbana; Gobernanza Tecnificada; Ajuste Es-

pacial; Copacabana.

Timeline of the Manuscript



Received: September 2025

First Review: September 2025

Second Review: October 2025

Accepted for Publication: October 2025

Author revision: November 2025

Grammar, Spelling and ABNT review: December 2025

Author revision: December 2025

Published on December 2025

17