Introduction: the Interface of Culture and Communication Through Tourism

Abstract

The introduction to this special issue explores why in an "age of communication" it has become increasingly important to revisit a somewhat lost sense of communication that we describe as the interface of culture and communication. Inspired by Karen Barad's work and the diverse range of contributions to this special issue, we reflect on the fragmented, multiplied, and diffracted sense of communication that has emerged in recent years. We examine this emergent form of communication through three interlinking yet distinct areas of study: "affective communication," "tourism media interface," and "interface of the human and nonhuman." Providing grounded empirical research alongside unique theoretical insights, the eight articles bring together a diverse and complex range of contexts that would otherwise not enter into conversation with one another. And yet in their own ways each contribution challenges how communication has been approached and perceived in specific tourism settings and opens up spaces for understanding communication as diffraction and differentiation rather than a coming together. By revisiting communication in this way, previous relationships embedded in tourism can be seen in new and interesting ways. The introduction to this special issue offers an initial exploratory conceptual framing of what we call the interface of culture and communication in effort to forefront new ways of thinking and engaging with culture and communication in tourism studies and beyond.