Economic Evaluation Rationalities: How Life Trajectories Shape Beach Commerce as Seen Through the Bourdieusian Framework

Economic Evaluation Rationalities (EERs) of beach bar owners are central to the design of different patterns of commercial beaches. We ran multiple correspondence analysis based on data from 16 interviews with beach bar owners in Aracaju (Brazil) regarding their age, gender, educational status, origin, business longevity, use of social media, use of TripAdvisor and the way they measure customer’s satisfaction. The results showed three types of rationalities: word-of-mouth, expert recommendation and independent online evaluation. We also found that social, technological, generational and cultural capitals are active for the distribution of these three types of rationalities in the beach bar sub-field. The research framework can be replicated in different sets of commercial beaches, allowing for comparison, especially in terms of free and/or paid uses of the beach and the degree to which beach bar owners submit themselves to international trends in tourism management.