Faustini declared: 'I think of Rio as a popular city not as The Marvelous City'. He aims to re-imagine the stereotyped image of Rio, and the conventional carioca, associated with beauty, beaches, leisure and tourist sites, viewing these images as the 'silent construction of a Rio that is the sum of several people who produce the wealth of the city'.

To Faustini, these prevailing stereotypes result from an objectification of the landscape and a failure to consider the human experience - In the 19 texts that comprise this work, the authors position the contemporary carioca in a metropolitan framework, increasingly connected to different districts and diverse identities.

The new carioca is presented as an 'ideal type' whose work will be indispensable in overcoming inequality. The authors invite the reader therefore to mirror the 'utopian subject' in order to meaningfully transform the city and draw to a close the fable generated by capital.