Place and identity in tourists' accounts

Although interdisciplinary scholarly attention has focused on the theoretical links between identity and place, there exist few empirical studies that explore the processes through which these constructs are embedded in language practice. This paper analyzes, using the ethnomethodological approach Membership Categorization Analysis, formulations of place and identity in tourists accounts of their activities in a UK National Park. Analysis focuses on the way interviewees construct a particular "spatio-moral" order of places and types of tourists, through formulations of activities in tourism sites, descriptions of scenes and terrain, and stories about other users' normative and transgressive uses of space. Overall, identity claims are practical achievements that are embedded in talk about places.