Bad Fame Street at nightfall

Capturing the consumption atmosphere of an urban space in Caruaru – PE, Brazil

Abstract

The spaces have atmospheres, promote consumer experiences and reveal cultural aspects. Following Foucault, Bad Fame Street can be considered a heterotopic space, as it is physically located at a specific time and overlaps with other places, assuming a social function. We wonder how the affective atmosphere shaped a consumption experience given in this place. Based on Non-Representational Theory, we understand that consumption experiences are composed of a fluid arrangement of several disparate elements: human, non-human and semiotic, the place being one of them. We carried out a narrative interview with a regular consumer on the street, using a guide protocol and organizing our analysis into four narrative moments presented here. We conclude that the affective atmosphere shaped the consumption experience by involving macro and microsocial aspects in the production of the imaginary space itself, in addition to unrepresentable contexts of ordinary life, such as values ​​and beliefs, with which the visitors signed up by identification. Thus, the affective force of the atmosphere involved bodies, affected thoughts and conduct, promoting experience and, with space-time being the place of action, it lent itself to the spatialization of power and resistance. The production of experiences revealed, at the same time, that of realities.