TERRITORIALIZATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE BASED ON GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS: THE CASE OF THIRD AGE GYMS (ATIS)
Published date: 19/11/2018
Through a theoretical articulation of the advances on space and territories in the field of Organizational Studies with the approach to everyday life, this article seeks to understand how territorialization occurs in the everyday lives of the residents of a particular neighborhood, based on the production of the urban space by means of government interventions, with the implementation of Third Age Gyms (ATIs). ATIs emerged as a strategy to promote health and quality of life, influenced by a context of demographic transition. The study uses qualitative and descriptive perspectives. The methodological procedures involved document research and fieldwork with interviews with elderly people who attend an ATI weekly in one of the neighborhoods of Maringá, the Brazilian city where the first national ATI was launched. The data collected were analyzed through content analysis. It was found that the space, previously abandoned and unused by the residents of the neighborhood, is now guided by the everyday territorialities of the users, who built it by movements of appropriation and use. It is also highlighted that the government intervention was carried without negative impacts on the population, as they have appropriated the discourses that raised awareness of the benefits of the ATI.