Practices in and of tourism

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book critically engages with practice theories as a promising way to conceptualise and research tourism, and explores how the study of tourism could contribute to wider debates about practice. It brings together research on a broad range of sub-fields within tourism studies to examine more closely how practice theories are shedding new light on the ways in which tourism is enacted in specific contexts. The book also examines how tourism is 'learnt', often together with other social practices, and shows how change, learning and innovation take place through these ongoing activities. Practice theories adopt a 'flat' ontology where the social is conceptualised as inhabiting one level, that of practices. The book exemplifies that practice theories lend themselves well to the study of everyday and seemingly mundane activities, or to what Nicolini terms 'zooming in'.