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Chasing a myth? Searching for ‘self’ through lifestyle travel.

Cohen, S., 2010. Chasing a myth? Searching for ‘self’ through lifestyle travel. Tourist Studies, 10 (2), 117-133.

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Official URL: http://tou.sagepub.com/

DOI: 10.1177/1468797611403040

Abstract

This paper problematises the concept of searching for self in the context of lifestyle travellers – individuals for whom extended leisure travel is a preferred lifestyle that they return to repeatedly. Qualitative findings on the search for self from in-depth semi-structured interviews with lifestyle travellers in northern India and southern Thailand are considered in light of opposing academic perspectives on self. The study reveals a theoretical tension that exists between lifestyle travellers who may seek a unified sense of self underpinned by the essentialist position that one’s ‘true self’ exists and contrasting academic viewpoints that conceptualise embodied selves as processual, situational and in flux.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:1468-7976
Uncontrolled Keywords:self, searching, lifestyle travellers, essentialism, social construction
Group:Bournemouth University Business School
ID Code:18339
Deposited By: Dr Scott Cohen LEFT
Deposited On:26 Jul 2011 08:39
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 13:39

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