Rugged Practices: Embodying Authenticity in Outdoor Recreation

Abstract

When people recreate outdoors, they value the quality of the experience. This study examines rhetorical practices that sustain or undermine perceived authentic outdoor recreation experiences. I conducted a rhetorical analysis of my fieldnotes gathered through participant observation and interview transcripts of online and in-person interviews. I suggest that practices of walking in outdoor recreation*such as staying on or going off a trail, running, and wearing inadequate footwear*communicate member status in an outdoor recreation subculture and construct expectations for authentic experiences. My analysis demonstrates how fluid, embodied, repetitive actions can produce or violate abstract constructs such as authentic experiences.

Contesting authentic practice and ethical authority in adventure tourism

“…Grounding their moments of performative authenticity in The Red and the Adirondacks inspires senses of responsibility in these adventure tourists such that they are explicit about their desire to see these landscapes protected. Further, it is their close relationship with these places that affords them the perspective to see changes occurring and the consequences of overuse (see Wattchow & Brown, 2011 Perceptions of the authenticity of others' behaviors become particularly important ways of assessing fellow users (Senda-Cook, 2012). In their minds, the practices that users employ in these settings communicate one's relationship to place: as belonging in these landscapes or as unappreciative visitors.…”

“…These close associations with The Red and the Adirondacks mean that performances of place are also performances of authenticity (see Knudsen & Waade, 2010;Senda-Cook, 2012;Rickly-Boyd, 2013). As such, it is worthwhile to consider the ways place relates to enactments of authenticity, what this means for notions of authority in and responsibility to place, and how sense of place is put to use in the exclusionary politics of these adventure tourists.…”

“…Existential authenticity, however, is an activity-based approach that prioritizes authenticity as experiential, resulting from embodiment, identity, and intersubjectivity (Wang, 1999). These are more internally experienced factors; yet, the materiality of place is crucial to a more complete engagement with existential authenticity and its constituent factors (see Belhassen, Caton, & Stewart, 2008;Senda-Cook, 2012;Rickly-Boyd, 2013). …”

“…Through adventure tourism, intersubjective encounters extend beyond communitas, spontaneous, temporary communities (Wang, 1999), to stronger companionship relations by way of the heightened elements of risk, and therefore trust among adventurers. Adventure tourism offers moments of existential authenticity through challenges that emphasize bodily experience, sense of self, and companionship (see Varley, 2006Varley, , 2011Rickly-Boyd, 2012b), but the embodied practice of adventure can also be used to assess fellow users (see Senda-Cook, 2012).…”

“…Authenticity is a concept that includes perceptions and experiential qualities related to place, practice, identity, and intersubjective relationships (Wang, 1999;RicklyBoyd, 2013). As Senda-Cook (2012) explains, authenticity is a rhetorical practice that extends beyond semantics to the embodied practices of outdoor recreation. We investigate the way authenticity is used by adventure tourists to rationalize sense of place, ethical authority, and identity politics.…”