Wild camping and the weight of tourism

Outi Rantala*, Peter Varley

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Wild camping forms a specific social reality within which tourists often claim not to be tourists and within which the capitalist practices central to tourism are messy. Yet, wild camping exemplifies the core idea in tourism: engaging in time during which time is ‘free’. Here the concern is with the ways in which we ‘do’ going camping. We take material interaction with space, place and things as a starting point, via ethnomethodologically informed ethnography, in focusing upon the deployment of mundane, taken-for-granted assumptions, knowledge and practices. We find urban nomads engaged in the clearing, freedom and escape of the outdoors (the lightness), but anchored by the materialities of doing everyday life work, weighted with responsibilities towards nature, things and people.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)295-312
Number of pages18
JournalTourist Studies
Volume19
Issue number3
Early online date11 Mar 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • camping
  • clearing
  • heaviness
  • lightness
  • materiality
  • rhythms

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