Non-human agency, radical ontology and tourism realities

Using insights from actor-network theory, this article introduces the notions of non-human agency and radical ontology to the realm of tourism research. Drawing from fieldwork at a Polish tourist destination, the article demonstrates how a rather unlikely destination actor, the oscypek cheese, is enacted in different versions as it engages with tourism, tradition, craftsmanship, hygiene and legislation. It is described how four versions of the cheese impact the destination by producing, shaping and altering destination realities and how reality-shaping requirements, possibilities and controversies are constantly negotiated and altered through the linkage of multiple actors, discourses and practices. It is argued that actor-network theory may help to elucidate this working of non-human actors and the subsequent enactment of multiple tourism realities.

Research highlights► This article introduces the notions of non-human agency and radical ontology to tourism research. ► Using the case of oscypek cheese, it is shown how a non-human actor is enacted as multiple. ► ANT is presented as a way to elucidate the enactment of multiple tourism realities.