Spaces and times of intimacy transnationalization in a Brazilian touristic context

Abstract

Social reality is structured in space and time. These coordinates are, simultaneously, elements produced in the framework of practices of signification, relational dynamics, and expressions of identity embedded in that same reality. From this generic premise and based on an empirical ethnographic research, in this article, I analyze the spatial and temporal orderings of the passion landscapes that take place in the touristic neighbourhood of Ponta Negra (Natal, Northeast of Brazil) among Brazilian women and European tourists. I aim to shed light on Euro-Brazilian transnationalization of intimacy —fuelled by mass tourism— and to understand the ways in which this intimacy is engraved and organized in specific topological and chronological segments of that place, providing them identity, relief, and sometimes a heterotopic configuration on the neighbourhood scenario, generating dissonances and some social tensions and disputes.