Pleasure as an “Institutionalized” Enterprise

Abstract

Each of the spheres in which social classes of various kinds operate constitutes, to a greater or lesser extent, a community of practice.

When speaking of practice, we refer to culture, a joint enterprise, a shared repertoire, and mutual engagement among members who interact and negotiate within countless political relations, following Wenger (2001).

This research considers two types of “enterprises”: the institutional one, represented by dance academies, and the non-institutional one, represented by the nighttime salsa scene and private gatherings.

The setting chosen for this work is “the salsa community of practice of San Salvador de Jujuy”, a community that is in constant dialectic between these two types of “enterprises”, which are practiced in multiple geographic spaces.

The object of this analysis is the interpretation of all forms of non-formal learning that, in some way, determine access to the previously mentioned hermetic space: the salsa scene.

The methodology used will consist of discourse analysis and contextual definitions, which will be applied, at this stage, to observations and interviews.

With the advances made in the topic under study, it is possible to contrast two very different conceptions regarding the central concept: the community of practice proposed by Etienne Wenger (2001). While for some of its members there is a community based on social interactions, for others it is a geographic space of prestige—“Amor Puro” resto-pub—that makes them truly active participants.

Being part of this “institution” not only raises the problem of immersion in the field under study, but also reveals that it is not clearly defined what that field is, although at this stage there seems to be a social space that may be represented by the resto-pub.