Second modernity – a term that has been coined by Ulrich Beck – refers to contemporary social conditions brought forward by the unintended consequences of modernisation processes. Ecological, social, political and economical conditions are subject to side-effects of previous human activity. Second modernity, which is also referred to as “risk” society is characterized by the fact that social institutions, fundamental to stability in first modernity, are losing power. Individualization processes develop with social status and identity becoming a manageable life-project. Crucial within these processes is the decreasing importance of spatial relations. Due to increased specialization and developments in transportation and communication social space is becoming disembedded from geo-spatial relations. Mobility becomes a key feature of second modernity societies - mobility however occurs in various forms from pure bodily experience to virtual travel.
In second modernity mainstream definitions of tourism become less accurate. These, such as the official definition of WTO, are based on the distinct and opposite categories of home/away spatial relations and everyday/other experiences. Tourism in this framework has been considered as a set of activities and experiences different from everyday life and away from the usual environment. In second modernity however the meanings of ‘home’ and ‘everyday’ are challenged both in spatial and in social sense in a number of aspects:
Unclear what distances in work and leisure “everyday” mobility may cover
Home and workplace – if considered as places we spend time in and are familiar with – are becoming multiple with various forms of pluri-local life-styles (multiple homes and/or workplaces) emerging,
Visual consumption, bodily movement and the constant search for novelties become key features of everyday life,
New ICT technologies generate new, “virtual” forms of mobility combined with activities considered as “tourism” transform personal networks enabling the development of strong ties irrespective of spatial relations,
New ICT technologies create obscure relation of home and away, not allowing the leaving of “home” (duties, responsibilities and resources) fully anymore even when being geographically “away”.
Based on the above changes, a review of our approach to tourism will be needed while considering it as one of basic structures of everyday life. This is based on the fact that in contemporary second modernity societies, spatial relations and the life-world are disconnecting. This raises a series of contingent situations and experiences on three levels -normatively, spatially and temporally. Beside “old” migrations, new forms of mobilities emerge between spatially distinct – and often far away – but socially and personally heavily interconnected places. This develops into new social structures often termed as “network”, “flow” or “scape”. With personal networks lifting out from local relations, new strategies reducing complexity will be needed. Tourism re-thought as movement within such networks of personal ties and experiences can be considered as one of or the key such strategy, through strengthening only a limited number of spatially independent personal connections. Through tourism activities, seen in this way, individuals experience a de-spatialised social world, create meanings and construct individual socioscapes and identities.