A (in)visibilidade das práticas de lazer do idoso nos espaços livres mantidos pelo poder público de Porto Nacional - TO

Abstract

The public spaces for leisure are becoming common and in cities are frequently frequented by the population, as it refers to the possibility of performing various activities, as well as the integration between users of different socioeconomic classes and age groups. In the municipality of Porto National-TO, public infrastructures are built in free spaces as a leisure option and socialization of its residents. What interested us in this study were the perceptions of the elderly regarding leisure practices in these spaces. That is, whether they attend or not, because they attend, why they do not attend, what they do in those spaces, what is good and what could be improved. Through the above, as a general objective, the work sought to analyze the elderly optics in relation to the use of public leisure in Porto National spaces. A total of 214 elderly people distributed in the 15 urban perimeter census tracts, who had a population of over 10% related to the total population of the sector, and 14 elderly people in the Academy of the Third Age, located at the edge of the city, totaling 228 seniors. A bibliographical and field research was carried out. For the field research, a questionnaire was applied in order to reach the objective proposed in this study. The data were collected and analyzed in a quantiqualitative way and pointed out that the elderly conceptualize leisure as something positive and necessary to their life. However, most 73.4% of the 214 elderly people surveyed in their residences do not attend the public leisure spaces of Porto National and the 14 elderly people approached in the Third Age Academy, 71% said they did not attend other leisure spaces in spaces public, besides the edge of the city. As an impeding factor, issues such as the lack of accessibility caused by the absence of public safety, transportation, physical limitations, lack of lighting in the spaces for leisure in the city, irregular floors, lack of ramps and banisters, as well as vandalism that these areas are inappropriate for the leisure of the elderly. The data also point to the lack of information and incentive policies by the municipal public power to the leisure practices of the elderly in public spaces maintained by the municipal public power, making them feel excluded from these spaces and experience their leisure through routine domestic activities, as well as activities performed with the family in which it normally involves some type of work. In other words, the elderly experience more the semi leisure than the leisure itself