Youth tourism? Traveling in the biographies of young people of popular neighborhoods of Buenos Aires

Abstract In this article, I present results of my doctoral thesis whose general objective is to analyze the experiences of young people from Buenos Aires' popular neighborhoods, investigating the articulation between mobilities and corporalities in their individuation processes. A qualitative approach was used, following grounded theory procedures. Semi-structured interviews, biographical focus, and participant observation were conducted in a social organization that offers free circus workshops to young people from popular neighborhoods. Research has begun to examine youth tourism, highlighting the increase of young travelers and tourist centers created around them. However, the possibilities of traveling and ‘vacation’ differ between different social groups. Its approach becomes a way of recognizing inequalities. This paper identifies the characteristics of the trips present in the biographies of interviewed young people, the way they perceived those trips, the meanings around them, as well as the enabling and limiting factors for undertaking them. By analyzing the narratives, it is possible to distinguish three types of trips: those made possible and motivated by family bonds, those proposed by religious groups settled down in the city’s popular neighborhoods for survival in nature, and those projected to future, as a desire of potential mobility.