LEISURE, STREET FOOD AND FOOD PARKS: ADDING MEANINGS TO THE URBAN SPACES OF THE CITY OF NATAL/RN

Abstract

As their presence on the streets grows, occupying the city's physical and symbolic spaces, the food trucks carry the opportunity to discuss the role that street food plays in our urban society. More than the circumstantial pressures of contemporary daily life, other factors may have contributed to its upsurge, such as the perception of eating out on the street as a form of leisure or pastime within reach of those who live in large cities. This research consists of an exploratory study carried out in Natal-RN in an attempt to capture impressions of how street food through food parks interferes in the daily life of the city, especially in the cultural, sociability and leisure aspects. The aim was to investigate the potential of street food as a generator of experiences of leisure and leisure through its interference in the spaces of the city. It has been applied a qualitative research strategy, using documentary research, observational research methods and semi-structured interviews with food park visitors in Natal. It concludes with reflections on the potential of street food to create places of leisure and leisure experience.