A Companion to Tourism

Abstract

systems. In other words repressed existential issues as such, press themselves back on to the agenda . . .moral/existential problems are actively recovered and brought forward into public debate. The specific moral arena of such debates concerns, not just what should be done for human beings to survive in nature, but how existence itself should be grasped and ‘‘lived’’: this is Heidegger’s ‘‘question of Being.’’ (Giddens 1991: 224) This concern with the grand questions of life is also a feature of Beck’s theorizing. In The Brave New World of Work Beck (2000) posits a new relationship between work, leisure, and society in which the overall goal is to sustain the commons and meet the obligations of society. Activities that do not contribute to wider social goals do not contribute to social capital. It is not clear precisely how tourism would figure in this relationship, but it is evident that Beck would entertain ethical objections to the pursuit of any leisure activity that was undertaken entirely for its own sake and without reference to the global commons. ‘‘Apathy, indifference, sloth, and subor- dination are not on the menu’’ (Rojek 2001). Tourism, while contributing to self- actualization, would always face the necessity to protect and enrich the commons. One might thus expect this to be a world in which more environmentally responsible forms of tourism would flourish.