Backpaking lifestyle
who you are.
This perspective illustrates the actor-level intersection between self-concept and lifestyle
(Cohen, 2011), wherein patterns of consumption may ‘give material form to a particular
narrative of self-identity’ (Giddens, 1991, p. 81).
Ideology and Identity
Whilst it is well-established that backpackers returning home often mobilise narratives of
self-transformation on the road (Noy, 2004), lifestyle travellers are subject to years of
exposure to varied cultural praxes and backpacker subculture, which may manifest in extreme
pressure on their socio-cultural identities. One possible outcome of sustained, diverse cultural
interaction is a cosmopolitan disposition (in contrast to parochialism), in which it is suggested
that tourism may lead to a subjective open-orientation or outlook towards other ways of life
(Enoch & Grossman, 2010; Germann Molz, 2006; 2008; Hannerz, 1990). Indeed, Ryan
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