Staged Authenticity

A Grande Idée

Bibliographic Data

ID11410558
AuthorsKjell Olsen (Innovation Performance (Norway), corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume32
Issue2
Pages83-85
Publication date2007-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTourism Recreation Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0250-8281 • E-ISSN: 2320-0308
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02508281.2007.11081280
OpenAlexW1977297720
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited9

With reference to Susanne Langer’s book ‘Philosophy in a New Key’ (1942), Clifford Geertz writes about Grande idee in social sciences. Such Grande idee(s) often “... resolve so many fundamental problems at once that they seem also to promise that they will resolve all fundamental problems, clarify all obscure issues. Everyone snaps them up as the open sesame of some new positive science, the conceptual center-point around which a comprehensive system of analysis can be built” (Geertz 1973: 3). The destiny of a Grande idee often is that they become metaphorical and metonymically extended in such a way that their weaknesses, constraints and limitations become obvious. The result is that they are either thrown away, or, as Geertz suggested in the case of the concept of culture, scholars start; “... cutting the [...] concept down to size” (1973: 4). Which one of these two destinies will MacCannell’s concept of staged authenticity end up with, remains to be seen. Subjectively argued, perhaps some insight might be gained by delimiting the concept. A useful approach to cutting authenticity down to size, while remaining in tune with MacCannell, is essentially to regard the concept as an important idee in Western modernity that can be analysed specifically through concrete studies. The ideas embedded in the concept of authenticity, are typically concerned with the relationship between the copy and the original; about the moral value of certain forms of relationships in modern societies and; the difference between societies labelled modern and those regarded as traditional (MacCannell 1999: 3, 93-97). The application of the framework of authenticity in tourism studies particularly, may enable the development of a better understanding of peoples’ experiences in

Archaeology · Art · Geography · Humanities · Tourism · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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