La sociologia del turismo, tra celebrazione dell'appartenenza e costruzione dell'identità

The paper proposes a synthesis of the activity of the Mediterranean Association for the Sociology of Tourism, in the wider frame of Italian research and studies, and specifically in the debate promoted by the journal Sociologia Urbana e Rurale. It considers the change of motivation and behaviour in tourism, which takes place in the transition from Fordist to post Fordist society. Tourism now presents uncertain development trends, and gets over specifically consecrated areas, arranging transversal routes with respect to the metropolitan zoning of free time activities. So, the profane dimension of everyday life makes irruptions in the tourist experience and overlaps to the various individual ways of differentiation. [Publishers' text].