Tem um lugar em seu sofá?: a hospitalidade em Jaguarão/RS, na perspectiva da rede couchsurfing

Abstract

The present thesis deals with hospitality as a social practice mediated by a virtual social network of travelers called Couchsurfing. Translated as "sofa surfing", this practice is known for the free hosting offer worldwide, enabling online and offline interaction between registered individuals, as well as promoting the exchange of hospitality, in which host becomes a guest in other travel situations and vice versa. In this research, the hosts and guests of the municipality of Jaguarão, located in the extreme south of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were investigated. The general objective of the research is to analyze hospitality mediated by social practices through Couchsurfing in Jaguarão, RS. It seeks to understand how these social practices in Jaguarão resemble (or not) the logic pointed out by the principles, mission, and policy of use of the site highlighted in the Couchsurfing network. It is also sought to know the interests and motivations of the subjects for this networked social practice, investigating how the system of exchanges occurs, knowing them. The research had a qualitative approach and the methodological course relied on bibliographical study and cyberspace field research, with semi-structured interviews and observations. It approached the ethnographic method, with the use of the previous registrations in the network Couchsurfing for the purposes of the investigation. The interpretive analysis was based on the usability rules of the site, which refers to the vision, principles, and policies that mark the hospitality mediated by Couchsurfing and in the Theory of the Gift of Marcel Mauss, which builds the basis of the French current of studies of hospitality. It can be seen that the motivations that encourage guests traveling to Jaguarão through this network are multiple, but not always with the objective of establishing connections with other people. Although some surfers have placed themselves before the hospitality premises pointed out by RSV, some reported practices are paradoxical, generating intimidation. Hostility is established in the face of the "couch sale," but also in demonstrations of intolerance of diversity and disrespect for the explicit rules of Couchsurfing and implicit in the hospitality of each host. The exchanges take place online and offline, in different prisms, being the monetary, the sexual, the friendly and the symbolic and, although friendly, the exchanges transgress, in many situations, the explicit and implicit rules of hospitality Couchsurfiana ". Finally, the thesis presents new challenges for the study of leisure, tourism, and hospitality as the themes demand instruments that privilege and accompany the liquidity and obscurity of emerging social practices.