LEISURE AND RESISTANCE IN THE TOURISTIFICATION PROCESS: CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES IN THE VILLAGE OF PONTA NEGRA, NATAL, RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
Leisure. Touristification. Deterritorialization. Leisure of Resistance. Vila de Ponta Negra/RN.
Leisure is a fundamental social right; however, in societies marked by deep inequalities, access to it is restricted and often commodified by the dynamics of capitalism. In tourist destinations, the intervention of speculative capital and tourist-driven urbanization trigger the process of touristification, reshaping urban spaces to primarily meet market demands, which promotes gentrification and the socio-spatial exclusion of the low-income resident population. This is the reality of Vila de Ponta Negra, in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a former fishing community designated as a Special Area of Social Interest (AEIS), which faces a landscape of contrasts as well as intense segregation driven by the expansion of tourism. In contrast to the loss of their traditional spaces for leisure and work, we observe the reinvention of land use by the marginalized population, shaping what we call “leisure of resistance,” in which peripheral subjects break down barriers to exercise community leadership, political (re)existence, and the right to the city. In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the conceptions, conditions, and practices of leisure in public and tourist-oriented areas among the socially marginalized residents of Vila de Ponta Negra, Natal/RN.The study, grounded in the critical-dialectical method described by Netto (2011), adopts a mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) approach. Data collection will be conducted through bibliographic and documentary research, mapping of local recreational facilities, on-site non-participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with the village residents. Data analysis will be conducted based on Bardin’s (1979) categorical content analysis. The results are expected to confirm the initial research hypothesis that the process of touristification actively acts as a limiting agent and a promoter of deterritorialization; however, leisure can constitute a strategy of resistance and an element of political struggle for local communities. The study should demonstrate that the recreational and social practices of these residents have come to occur primarily in urban interstices or at alternative times, showing that the neighborhood’s modernization primarily served the logic of tourism-real estate capital, to the detriment of the city’s social function and residents’ right to their living space and memory.