This paper registers the relevance of Rio de Janeiro as a place of disputes and political constructions. Precisely one year before the Jornadas de Junho, the city hosted a worldwide mobilization, Rio+20 (UNCSD). Although one can criticize the different motivations and interests of some groups that participated in this event, the meeting itself is an effervescent point of contestation and transgression, as it shelters a wide range of social actors to discuss sustainable development and planetary directions. Thus, the paper recovers the historical-ethnographic records made in 2012 to remember how the city had already entered a world mobilization circuit a year before the Jornadas de Junho. Because it is an ethnography located in Rio de Janeiro, the paper combines the descriptions of events with aspects involving the historical relevance of the places where they occurred. In doing so, it expects to contribute to studies interested in articulating historical, political and urban dimensions in this city.