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.
Chapter
1. Introduction: Cultures of Authenticity; Thomas Thurnell-Read,
Michael Skey, and Marie Hemanovį
Part I: Tourism, Heritage and Place
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2. Authenticity in Tourism Studies; Jillian M. Rickly
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3. Negotiating the Spirit of Place: Towards a Performative
Authenticity of Historic Buildings; Jonathan Djabarouti
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4. Authenticity Issues in Nüshu Cultural Heritage in China:
Authentication, Discourse, and Identity-Making; Xihuan Hu
Chapter
5. Permanent Souvenirs: Traditional Tattoos and the Search for
Authenticity in the Northern Philippines; Sam Pack and Justin Sun
Part II: Branding, Consumption and Commodities
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6. Authenticity in Material Culture, Consumption and Branding;
Valerie Gannon and Andrea Prothero
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7. Past and Present in Branding Authenticity: The taste of history;
Iben Bredahl Jessen
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8. One Brand, Multiple Authenticities: The Case of the Worlds First
Pay-Per-Minute Café; Alexandra Kviat OPEN ACCESS
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9. Authentic Sports Branding in the Digital Age; Sian Rees
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10. Authenticity, Distinction and Value in the Narratives of Chinese
Consumers of Vintage Costume Jewellery; Jingrui Hu and Thomas Thurnell-Read
Part III: Popular Culture
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11. Introduction: Gender and Authenticity in Contemporary Popular
Culture & Advertising; By Jilly Boyce Kay
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12. Authenticity after Cock Rock: Emo and the Problem of Femininity;
Judith Fathallah
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13. The Best a Man Can Be?: Finding a Place for the Real Man in
Grooming Advertisements; Kai Prins
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14. Keeping it Real? Dynamics of authenticity and branding in
RuPauls Drag Race; Mads Mųller Tommerup Andersen
Part IV: Social Media
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15. What I Talk About When I Talk About Authenticity: An
Auto-Bibliographic Inquiry; Crystal Abidin
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16. The Authenticity Gap: How Influencers Commodify Authenticity on
Instagram; Lucy Frowijn, Frank Harbers, and Marcel Broersma
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17. Im Always Telling You My Honest Opinion: Influencers and
Gendered Authenticity Strategies on Instagram; Marie Hemanovį
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18. Liquid Figures, Solid Structures: The pursuit of an Authentic
Consumer Steward Identity in Online Communities; Yan Han Wang, Hélčne de
Burgh-Woodman, and Keri Spooner
Part V: Politics and Political Communication
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19. Authenticity in Politics and Political Communication Research:
Analytic Concept and Political Issue; James Stanyer
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20. Strategic Political Authenticity. How Populists Construct an
Authentic Self; Christina Holtz-Bacha
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21. Right Wing Co-option of the Perceived Authenticity of Citizen
Journalism; Jessica Roberts
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22. Post-authentic Engagement with Alternative Political Commentary
on YouTube and Twitch; Daniel Jurg, Dieuwertje Luitse, Saskia Pouwels, Marc
Tuters, and Ivan Kisjes
Chapter
23. Exploring the Authentic in Taiwanese Politics: An
Intergenerational Analysis; Ssu-Han Yu and Miaoju Jian
Marie Hemanovį 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.