Elderly people on field trips: Entertainment, biossociability and adventure

Abstract

This paper aimed identified and analyzed some contemporary meanings of tourism for elderly people who go on field trips. Four trips were carried out in Southern Brazil through the SESC Social Tourism Program and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Analyses of the results show that: Tourism contributes to establishing “filed trip friendships” and biossociabilities that reflect the body’s centrality and the level of superficiality that governs social relations; the rhythm of the trip, marked by an extended and inflexible schedule, seems to resume labor life rhythms desired by the elderly who are helpless in their “free time”. For women, the journey takes on a particular adventure meaning linked to changing patriarchal values and building other spaces and roles associated with the female condition.