Metropoetic Ethnotrails

Abstract

This ethnographic research conducted in Rio de Janeiro's metro system is based on the hypothesis that the subway is a heterotopy, a place whose order and predictability are in stark contrast with the chaotic background of urban centers. Nonetheless, public policies on franchise, appropriation and use of this outstanding place have cast doubts on its heterotopic nature, and even deteriorated its conspicuous potential to be a stimulating environment for communication and social skills.

ethnography; subway; heterotopy