Rusting by the Bay: Deindustrialization in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1980–2010

Rapid deindustrialization in Rio de Janeiro since the 1980s has defined zones of sacrifice where no one is liable for environmental hazards of past industrial activities, but the scars on the landscape remain. Human and non-human populations shared the region in its industrial boom and bust, in symbiotic but sometimes conflicted relationships as the urban metropolis expanded over the Guanabara Bay basin over the 20th century. Services and informal jobs replaced traditional fishery as the main activity in the region, as the economy orbited around the large tanneries and transformative industries in the Great Acceleration. Later, however, local communities struggled to survive when the jobs that brought them there vanished – and fishing was no longer an option. Oral history interviews bring to light the voices of former fishermen, factory workers, labor union members and community leaders, fleshing out the consequences of the deindustrialization narrative of what was called the “Lost Decade” of Latin America.