This thesis is a study of Italian women’s sensual embodiment in leisure and tourism experiences (involving beautifying in the city and tanning at the beach) in, and around, the city of Rome. The central link in this thesis connects the field of tourism studies with social cultural theories of the ‘body’, placing this research within the most recent theoretical debates on the body. It is argued that in everyday life people take their bodies for granted, yet the body is absolutely crucial to the way we engage with the world and the people around us. Through analysing Italian women’s embodiment, this thesis seeks to gain in-depth understanding of Italian society and more particularly women’s position in society, thereby positioning the field of tourism studies as a means for analysing people’s quotidian cultural habits. Embracing the critical paradigm, this thesis takes a reflexive and embodied approach to research, challenging the all-pervasive hegemonic dominance of positivist, masculinist Western academic approaches. Through post feminist lenses, auto ethnography, in-depth interviewing and document analysis were used to carry out the field work, with the central aim of capturing and contextualising Italian women’s voices and embodiment. This research shows Italian society to be strongly patriarchal, reflecting gender inequity and inequality. Women are dominated in discourse (politics, senior management and television shows being predominantly male), pressured into family roles, and objectified in society through the media and the male gaze. Paradoxically, women are empowered through choosing to reproduce patriarchal values of beauty and objectification (the power of the agency), and to embody these in a sensual and sensuous way, thereby reversing power relations in their favour. Aiming to understand Italian society through exploring women’s sensual embodiment, this thesis contributes to a broader understanding of the gendered construction of social identity, and of patriarchy and power relations, from a woman’s perspective. It contributes to gender and body studies in the tourism field through bringing these separate fields together, through exploring the power of agency in embodiment, and through the critical research approach to the body.

This thesis is a study of Italian women’s sensual embodiment in leisure and tourism experiences (involving beautifying in the city and tanning at the beach) in, and around, the city of Rome. The central link in this thesis connects the field of tourism studies with social cultural theories of the ‘body’, placing this research within the most recent theoretical debates on the body. It is argued that in everyday life people take their bodies for granted, yet the body is absolutely crucial to the way we engage with the world and the people around us. Through analysing Italian women’s embodiment, this thesis seeks to gain in-depth understanding of Italian society and more particularly women’s position in society, thereby positioning the field of tourism studies as a means for analysing people’s quotidian cultural habits. Embracing the critical paradigm, this thesis takes a reflexive and embodied approach to research, challenging the all-pervasive hegemonic dominance of positivist, masculinist Western academic approaches. Through post feminist lenses, auto ethnography, in-depth interviewing and document analysis were used to carry out the field work, with the central aim of capturing and contextualising Italian women’s voices and embodiment. This research shows Italian society to be strongly patriarchal, reflecting gender inequity and inequality. Women are dominated in discourse (politics, senior management and television shows being predominantly male), pressured into family roles, and objectified in society through the media and the male gaze. Paradoxically, women are empowered through choosing to reproduce patriarchal values of beauty and objectification (the power of the agency), and to embody these in a sensual and sensuous way, thereby reversing power relations in their favour. Aiming to understand Italian society through exploring women’s sensual embodiment, this thesis contributes to a broader understanding of the gendered construction of social identity, and of patriarchy and power relations, from a woman’s perspective. It contributes to gender and body studies in the tourism field through bringing these separate fields together, through exploring the power of agency in embodiment, and through the critical research approach to the body.

The prevalent frame of 'tourism as vacation' explicitly implies that one vacates 'the familiar' and escapes to 'the foreign'. Discourses of escape, therefore, function on the assumption that a rather clean and uncomplicated rupture between the familiar and foreign takes place (an assumption not only informing conventional readings and practices of tourism, but also the modern logic of states and citizenship and modern thought more broadly). A failure to account for the effects of this escapist logic on both the performance and materialization of tourism, as well as the ways in which tourism has come to reflect profound political problematics endemic to modern thought, has produced a serious gap in 'critical tourism' literature. To contest this notion of rupture, or, to disrupt escape, requires what Judith Butler terms a ‘radical re-articulation’ of tourism. In hopes to excite such a disruption, my work draws on Jacques Derrida’s texts concerning ‘non-arrival’ and ultimately re-articulates tourism as a practice of everyday life.

<p>The focus of this essay is set on a number of processes that affect the challenges of the tourist trade, to be more precise – an analysis of the attitudes towards tourism and sustainability within this line of business – from an ethical and moral as well as social view. These issues are examined with reference to the concept of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Thus, acquaintance with theories of social constructivism, post colonialism, globalisation and global civil society is essential in order to understand the analysed material. The essay is mainly based on the outcome of qualitative interviews with various kinds of persons working with CSR related questions. Another material source has been the websites of a number of tour operators. The method used is the critical discourse analyse. The material presents a few specific themes:</p><p>”Confusion of ideas”, ”The experience of being examined in your branch of business”, ”For whom is this any good – who cares?”, ”To feel involved and participate” and ”Co-operation – the right track to follow”. By giving emphasis to the complexity of the work concerning CSR issues related to the travel industry the author of this essay tries to increase the understanding of the challenges that face the tourist trade.</p>

The focus of this essay is set on a number of processes that affect the challenges of the tourist trade, to be more precise – an analysis of the attitudes towards tourism and sustainability within this line of business – from an ethical and moral as well as social view. These issues are examined with reference to the concept of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Thus, acquaintance with theories of social constructivism, post colonialism, globalisation and global civil society is essential in order to understand the analysed material. The essay is mainly based on the outcome of qualitative interviews with various kinds of persons working with CSR related questions. Another material source has been the websites of a number of tour operators. The method used is the critical discourse analyse. The material presents a few specific themes: ”Confusion of ideas”, ”The experience of being examined in your branch of business”, ”For whom is this any good – who cares?”, ”To feel involved and participate” and ”Co-operation – the right track to follow”. By giving emphasis to the complexity of the work concerning CSR issues related to the travel industry the author of this essay tries to increase the understanding of the challenges that face the tourist trade.