A rede de dormir no comércio eletrônico: mediações do mercado na experiência do ócio e da cultura material

Abstract

This article presents an approach to leisure from material culture, exploring the mediation done by the market as a mechanism of circulation and translation of culture. In particular, this study deals with the contemporary relations between leisure and the hammock from the analysis of companies’ international e-commerce strategies, their online environments and the hammocks offered. Multimedia content and comments from other users provide a virtual experience of the physical hammock, which is presented as a sophisticated cultural good. The promises of rest and pleasure presented on the sites depend, to become concrete, on the localized relationship between the user and the hammock. The circulation process of the hammock portrays the material and symbolic plasticity of this furniture, as well as humanly capable, and by extension of industry and the global market, to redefine social signs.