Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the valorisation and privileging of the authentic within traveller discourse and the subsequent appropriation of ‘local’ spirituality, worldview, lifestyle and/or belief that commonly takes place within the backpacking culture.

Paper long abstract:

With increased secularisation, a movement away from traditional structuring influences and a growing distrust of, and disillusionment with, expert knowledge systems, in many Western societies contemporary journeying myths are vigorously circulated as a basis for identification. Indeed, a number of social commentators have recognised that these personal narratives of transformation and growth, of self-discovery through physical, psychological and spiritual journeying, are particularly salient among young independent travellers. However, what is striking is that through this process localised systems of knowledge (both secular and spiritual) are often adopted, adapted and souvenired by the global traveller.

Situated within a larger research project which examines the role of extended international travel in the lives of young Australians, this paper explores the valorisation and privileging of the authentic 'local' that occurs within the backpacking culture and the subsequent appropriation of 'local' spirituality, worldview, lifestyle and/or belief that commonly takes place. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with young Australian backpackers and discourse analysis of key travel guides and literatures, particular attention will be given to the way in which foreign cultures and/or landscapes can impact on the individual traveller's understanding of the world and their sense of self. With special emphasis on the interaction between minority world and majority world populations, the paper will further explore the way in which the journeying narratives and spiritual discourses that emerge in the young person's representation of their travelled identity can be understood as an attempt to reconcile self and other.