From the “hole” to the tourist attractive: a sociology of rural resignification

Abstract: This article aims to discuss the contemporary transformations of the rural based on the resignification phenomenon of nature and the environment. The article will be based on a case study about the representations of nature in Brotas, city located in the central region of São Paulo state. In this city, the elective affinity between the professionalization of adventure tourism, environmental issues and the discursive resignification of the rural was responsible for an important transformation of the locality from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century. The specific theme to be discussed in this case is the creation of an “object of nature” which has begun to characterize the rural in Brotas – namely the waterfalls, that previously was stigmatized as “holes”, and later transformed into environmental attractions endowed with economic value.

摘要：本文旨在依托自然与环境的意义再赋现象，探讨乡村的当代转型。研究将以圣保罗州中部城市布罗塔斯（Brotas）的自然表征为案例展开。自20世纪90年代至21世纪头十年，探险旅游专业化、环境议题与乡村话语意义再赋三者间的选择性亲和，推动该地区实现了重要转型。本案例的核心探讨主题为"自然客体"的塑造——这一塑造现已成为布罗塔斯乡村的标志性特征：具体而言，当地的瀑布此前被污名化为"荒洞"，而后被改造为兼具经济价值的环境旅游景点。