Circuits of Desire: Sexual Economies and International Tourism in the Northeast of Brazil

• Grant number: 15/21344-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2016
• End date: April 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Gracia Piscitelli
• Grantee: Adriana Gracia Piscitelli
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos de Gênero (PAGU). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This proposal is destined to update fieldwork material and bibliography in order to conclude the book "Circuits of desire: sexual economies and international tourism in the Northeast of Brazil", based on ethnographic researches carried since 2000 with the support of Fapesp in the touristic circuits of Fortaleza and other cities in the coast of the Ceará State. The project's main objectives are to update information regarding the trajectories of interviewees that I have accompanied along these years and to refine the theoretical discussions about how sexual economies work in transnational spaces. The book considers the effects of international tourism in the sexual/affective heterosexual choices of local population (men and women) of different social classes. These researches on which it is based were initially carried in dialogue with the literature about international sex tourism. However, the confrontation with the empirical material allowed us to perceive that this literature was not adequate in order to understand a diversity of social dynamics that extrapolated prostitution. In this project my aim is to obtain resources to analyze these dynamics, taking into account the perspectives that pay attention to how local sexual economies are re-configured in the transnational relationships connected with tourism. With this aim I intend to do two short fieldwork trips to Fortaleza and to spend a moth abroad, dialoguing with one of the most important international scholars specialized in these topics, Dr Kamala Kempadoo, at York University. The empirical and theoretical resources obtained by the fieldwork and this visit will contribute in order to work and give depth to the original manuscript. The main outcome will be the final manuscript ready for publication. (AU)