LEISURE AND THE FAVELA: SPACE, TOPOPHILIA, SPATIAL ROUGHNESS, AND TERRITORIALITIES IN PERSPECTIVE

ESPAÇO, TOPOFILIA, RUGOSIDADES E TERRITORIALIDADES EM PERSPECTIVA

Abstract

This article discusses leisure as a social, cultural, and spatial phenomenon, analyzing its expression in favelas through the categories of space, place, topophilia, heritage roughness, and (re)territorialization. The research, qualitative and interpretive in nature, is based on the documental, bibliographic, and narrative analysis of the doctoral thesis Maré de Lazer (Nascimento, 2020), which investigated leisure practices and places in the Complexo da Maré (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). The study assumes that leisure, when experienced collectively and affectively, constitutes an act of place production—a cultural and political practice of resistance that reconfigures the urban territory and re-signifies lived space. The methodology articulates two complementary axes: the documental and historical axis, focused on understanding spatial transformations and the symbolic and spatial axis, dedicated to interpreting leisure places as affective and political territories. The results indicate that leisure practices in the favela—such as the Campo do Minas Gerais, the Arraiá do Bico Mudo, the Forró do Seu Manoel Gomes—function as spaces of memory and resistance, where collectivity reaffirms its presence and identity in the face of the State’s historical neglect. It is concluded that leisure in urban peripheries transcends free time and assumes a dimension of (re)existence, becoming a language of belonging, solidarity, and the struggle for the right to the city