Worldmaking and the Representation of Peoples and Places in/Through Tourism

The concept of worldmaking is principally derived from the American philosopher Henry Nelson Goodman’s (1906–1998) thinking on symbolization in art and aesthetics. Working as a relativist and an irrealist (i.e., believing there is no “bedrock” for knowledge), Goodman’s anti-foundationalism maintains that in order to understand how people exist, live, and create, it is more useful to map the particular “worlds” they inhabit (or rather, the “versions” of distinct worlds they build around themselves) than to postulate about the single or universalized world. To Goodman, then, humans thrive and operate within many different worlds, and worldmaking constitutes that set of activities and understandings that compose the world in which a given population collectively abides or subsists. Worldmaking is highly relevant to tourism, as tourism involves everyday ...