From aspirational luxury to hypermobility to staying on the ground: changing discourses of holiday air travel in Sweden
Ullström, Sara LU
; Stripple, Johannes
LU
and Nicholas, Kimberly
LU
(2023)
In Journal of Sustainable Tourism
31(3).
p.688-705
- Abstract
- Research has demonstrated an unwillingness among travelers to reduce their holiday flying. Recently, however, a movement with people avoiding and problematizing flying has emerged in Sweden and spread internationally. This paper explores how the rising problematization of flying changes the meanings of holiday air travel in a carbon-constrained world. Using travel magazines and digital media sources, we trace changing discourses (overarching ideas and traditions shaping social practices) of holiday air travel in Sweden from 1950–2019. The paper identifies the emergence of a new discourse (Staying on the ground) and shows how it works through moralization (flying is ethically wrong) and persuasion (emphasizing alternatives) to challenge... (More)
- Research has demonstrated an unwillingness among travelers to reduce their holiday flying. Recently, however, a movement with people avoiding and problematizing flying has emerged in Sweden and spread internationally. This paper explores how the rising problematization of flying changes the meanings of holiday air travel in a carbon-constrained world. Using travel magazines and digital media sources, we trace changing discourses (overarching ideas and traditions shaping social practices) of holiday air travel in Sweden from 1950–2019. The paper identifies the emergence of a new discourse (Staying on the ground) and shows how it works through moralization (flying is ethically wrong) and persuasion (emphasizing alternatives) to challenge dominant meanings of holiday air travel as desirable and necessary. While Staying on the ground is far from a dominant discourse, there are signs that it has begun to destabilize contemporary cultures of aeromobility. The Staying on the ground discourse exemplifies how meanings attached to ingrained high-carbon practices, and the policies that sustain them, are currently being contested and rearticulated. Acknowledging that low-carbon transformations are fundamentally forms of social and cultural change, the paper illustrates why practices of carbon lock-in are so entrenched, but also how they might be resisted and open up for change. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/88f35e76-80ef-439c-8005-9aa6d3735333
- author
- Ullström, Sara
LU
; Stripple, Johannes
LU
and Nicholas, Kimberly
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- climate change, cultural change, social change, sustainable tourism, social norms, aviation
- in
- Journal of Sustainable Tourism
- volume
- 31
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 688 - 705
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85119589415
- ISSN
- 0966-9582
- DOI
- 10.1080/09669582.2021.1998079
- project
- Climate solutions
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 88f35e76-80ef-439c-8005-9aa6d3735333
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-23 15:34:34
- date last changed
- 2024-05-27 14:13:37
@article{88f35e76-80ef-439c-8005-9aa6d3735333,
abstract = {{Research has demonstrated an unwillingness among travelers to reduce their holiday flying. Recently, however, a movement with people avoiding and problematizing flying has emerged in Sweden and spread internationally. This paper explores how the rising problematization of flying changes the meanings of holiday air travel in a carbon-constrained world. Using travel magazines and digital media sources, we trace changing discourses (overarching ideas and traditions shaping social practices) of holiday air travel in Sweden from 1950–2019. The paper identifies the emergence of a new discourse (Staying on the ground) and shows how it works through moralization (flying is ethically wrong) and persuasion (emphasizing alternatives) to challenge dominant meanings of holiday air travel as desirable and necessary. While Staying on the ground is far from a dominant discourse, there are signs that it has begun to destabilize contemporary cultures of aeromobility. The Staying on the ground discourse exemplifies how meanings attached to ingrained high-carbon practices, and the policies that sustain them, are currently being contested and rearticulated. Acknowledging that low-carbon transformations are fundamentally forms of social and cultural change, the paper illustrates why practices of carbon lock-in are so entrenched, but also how they might be resisted and open up for change.}},
author = {{Ullström, Sara and Stripple, Johannes and Nicholas, Kimberly}},
issn = {{0966-9582}},
keywords = {{climate change; cultural change; social change; sustainable tourism; social norms; aviation}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{688--705}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Journal of Sustainable Tourism}},
title = {{From aspirational luxury to hypermobility to staying on the ground: changing discourses of holiday air travel in Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2021.1998079}},
doi = {{10.1080/09669582.2021.1998079}},
volume = {{31}},
year = {{2023}},
}