Leisure and dreams. Traveling as a leisure imaginary in South America

Leisure time is not always what everyone want. For many reasons, different social classes in South America capital cities –Santiago, Buenos Aires and Montevideo- wish travel as a perfect leisure time. They confront the real leisure time –for the most of them inside home, watching TV with their family- with their wishes and imagination –traveling around the country or the world, most of them alone or with friends-. As a result, the research concludes leisure practices and leisure imaginary are extremely distant –as a consequence everyone is unhappy with the real leisure time- and at the same time, leisure time is social situated -essentially unequal-. The paper is part of a comparative research about Cultural consumption patterns in South America (Gayo, M. (coord), Wortman, A, Mendez, M.L, y Radakovich, R.) supported by the Fundacion Carolina.