Understanding existential authenticity

Authenticity and the Pseudo-Backstage of Agri-Tourism

“…As a key concept of occidental thought for many centuries (Steiner & Reisinger, 2006) authenticity became a central subject in tourism research during the 1960s. Since then, the dichotomy of 'the authentic' (as desirable and good) and 'the inauthentic' (as objectionable and corrupt) in tourist settings has dominated not only the intellectual and feuilletonistic discourse, but also a good part of the scientific debate.…”

Authentication: Hot and cool

“…However, the discussion failed to lead to a broad consensus, which would make authenticity the anchor of a general paradigm for the study of modern tourism, but instead resulted in diverse theoretical perspectives (Rickly-Boyd, 2012). The three types of authenticity distinguished by Wang (1999;2000), objective (object) authenticity (further discussed by Reisinger & Steiner, 2006;Lau, 2010), constructed authenticity (Cohen, 1988;Olsen, 2002) and existential (subjective) authenticity (Steiner & Reisinger, 2006a) are still engendering separate discourses, despite some efforts at bridging them (e.g. Rickly-Boyd, 2012).…”

“…In the wide-ranging discussion following MacCannell"s opening, the concept has been interpreted and re-interpreted in various ways with regard to such issues as the nature of authenticity, its construction and experience (e.g. Cohen, 1988;2007a;Crang, 1996;Olsen, 2002;Bruner, 2005;Reisinger & Steiner, 2006;Steiner & Reisinger, 2006a;Belhassen, Caton & Stewart, 2008;Buchmann, Moore, & Fisher, 2010;Knudsen & Waade, 2010;Lau, 2010;Rickly-Boyd, 2012). However, the discussion failed to lead to a broad consensus, which would make authenticity the anchor of a general paradigm for the study of modern tourism, but instead resulted in diverse theoretical perspectives (Rickly-Boyd, 2012).…”

Farming and tourism enterprise: Experiential authenticity in the diversification of independent small-scale family farming

“…Indeed, Steiner and Reisinger (2006), Reisinger and Steiner (2006), and earlier Bruner (1991), even suggest abandoning the concept of object authenticity altogether as it has proven to be impossible to agree on meanings, although Lau (2010) in contrast suggests conceptualising authenticity solely as object authenticity, thereby delinking the concept from tourist experiences. However, consistent with the views of Bruner, Reisinger, Steiner, Wang and Selwyn, this paper focuses on the more existential forms of authenticity rather than on object authenticity.…”

“…However, Steiner and Reisinger (2006) argue that authenticity is a muddled concept in which we can understand the term either as applying to the genuineness, or realness of artefacts, involving object authenticity, or instead as an ability to know oneself and to live in accord with oneself free from constraints, which Wang (1999) describes as "existential authenticity", and Selwyn (1996) as "hot" authenticity", or authenticity as feeling, rather than knowledge.…”