Socio-technological authentication

Abstract

This paper proposes a socio-technological approach to conceptualising the processes of authentication in technology-saturated society. It argues that authentication involves the inscription of value to objects, places, actions and experiences. Consequently, authentication processes in tourism should be understood through a 'market practices' conception of human-technology interactions. Markets are conceived as socio-technical performative arrangements in which goods and services are objectified and brought together in a single space where their values are negotiated. The paper introduces the notion of 'experiential objects' to conceptualise configurations of tourism-related knowledge, which are captured, transformed and retransmitted through human and technological practices. Moreover, it explores how the value of such objects are produced and qualified through the networked interactions of human and non-human actors.