Cultures of Authenticity

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter.

Authenticity has become a buzzword for our times. Much of the travel industry is built around the provision of ‘authentic’ experiences, global brands fight to be seen as ‘authentic’ and social media platforms are awash with arguments about the authenticity of this post or that vlogger. But what do we mean by authenticity? And why have these debates grown so dramatically in the last two decades?

This collection explores the complex and at times controversial idea of authenticity. Addressing the concept from an interdisciplinary perspective and offering a diverse range of topical cases, the authors bring together the latest empirical and conceptual scholarship addressing authenticity and its centrality to debates about contemporary culture, media and society. In this way, the authors are able to pinpoint the growing significance of the concept of authenticity, the various ways in which different disciplines approach the topic, and possible ways of advancing the field across disciplines.

With sections covering travel and tourism, branding and marketing, popular culture, social media and political communication this exciting and innovative collection will make fascinating and crucial reading for scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities, and helps to define what these different disciplines mean by authenticity.

Marie Heřmanová is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Michael Skey is a Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, UK.

Thomas Thurnell-Read is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Loughborough University, UK.