Moments of (in)hospitality in cosmopolitan cities

Abstract

The aim of the study is to look at cosmopolitan cities searching for moments of hospitality that take place in cosmopolitan spaces. These moments are understood as the time when acts eliminate socially built barriers and anonymity by making people closer to the establishment of relationships that may result in effective bonds (temporary or long-lasting). Photoethnography was used; 421 photographic records were taken in the five largest Brazilian cities (in economic terms): São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasíliaand Curitiba. In total, 130 photos were selected for analysis; twenty of them were chosen to represent the four created categories, representing moments of hospitality in cosmopolitan cities: human, architectonic, environmental and hostility. It is noticeable that, although hospitality is a relationship set among two or more individuals, it does not become effective in the absence of adjacent factors, such as architecture and/or the environment. This outcome also reinforces the thin line between hospitality and hostility, to the extent that the perception of hospitality is dependent on hostility. Thus, we expect to contribute to the reasoning about hospitality in contemporary society, which is marked by exclusion, aggressiveness, hostility and, even, moments of inhospitality.