Formas emergentes de quotidianização da festa

This paper aims to comprehend some emerging social phenomena – fast feasts, subway parties, flash mobs, zombie walks, free hugs –, most of them originating in English speaking countries but present in all societies. The theoretical support for this understanding is that the affluent classes, free from the necessity of producing material goods, increasingly apply their function of cultural changers to the everyday and inventing new forms of festive leisure. Given the impossibility of accounting for all the facts and circumstances favouring this development, we study the events with greater social impact and visibility often due to their strange and provocative nature. We also seek to understand the way in which some of these phenomena are ritualized enabling us to gain a glimpse into the way social behaviour is codified and cultures are changed and structured.