Tzanelli, R orcid.org/0000-0002-5765-9856 (2020) Virtual pilgrimage: An irrealist approach. Tourism, Culture and Communication, 20 (4). pp. 235-240. ISSN 1098-304X
Abstract
In this reflective essay I revise the relationship between travel as an embodied secular journey and pilgrimage as a sacred ritual via examinations of websurfing as a form of virtual pilgrimage. My main premise is that virtual travel facilitated by the internet and through various digital platforms and collaborative social media should be considered as a novel secular form of metamovement we can approach as a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage produces multiple versions of reality ("world versions"), both in collaboration with corporate internet design and independently from it. Because such nonembodied secular engagement with other places and cultures produces online "travel" communities, digital pilgrimage prompts us to revisit John Urry's "tourist gaze" thesis and Keith Hollinshead's "worldmaking authority" in a critical fashion. Critical reconsideration of these two influential theses involves a closer inspection of metamovement for its aesthetic parameters, as well as their affording of creative connections between the mind (internalism) and the world (externalism) as a form of travel. Such connections can also assist in the production of conventional tourism mobilities.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Cognizant, LLC. Reproduced with permission from the publisher. |
Keywords: | irrealism; popular culture; travel; virtual pilgrimage; worldmaking |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jun 2021 12:49 |
Last Modified: | 29 Jun 2021 15:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cognizant Communication Corporation |
Identification Number: | 10.3727/109830420X15991011535517 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:175531 |