Abstract
The paper analyzes the politics of representations implied within the urban security framework produced by specific stakeholders – and for specific clients – in the city of Porto Alegre. First the research focuses on a methodological problem: who are the wealthy classes in Porto Alegre and how do they relate to the urban security issues. Then the investigation move to the analysis of private homes and dwelling as the model for security. Within this context, advertising materials and visual devices produced by stakeholders in the real estate market are analyzed in order to reveal the rhetorical strategies implied in the imaginary of exclusivity. In other words it seems that the imaginary of exclusivity, which serves as the backdrop for the upper classes’ routine and lifestyle, cannot leave aside exclusion and isolation. These visual designed devices operates thus a veritable symbolic reworking, which is able to transform the reclusion and the isolation into the very image of prosperity and wealth within which the rich and prosperous people of Porto Alegre confine themselves.