Enactment of Ideal Parenthood through Consuming a Multi-Functional Space Named “Nature”—Blogging Family Camping in Taiwan

Abstract

Given the evident paucity of parenthood–consumption research on family leisure/tourism, the present study set family camping into the framework of consumption culture research, to explore how nature (space) consumption is related to parenthood displays. Family camping blog posts were chosen as the data source for this study because of the commonality of tourists using self-media (blogs) to record their travels and display their identity these days, and a thematic method with an inductive nature was adopted to do the data analysis in order to dig deeper into the interwoven relationship between parenthood and consumption. The study results indicate that the campground and its natural surroundings are homogeneously consumed as a multi-functional space named “nature”, as well as a symbol of ideal parenthood for the connotations of purity and pristineness associated with nature, which allow camping parents to satisfy their children’s needs and enjoy their own leisure at the same time. However, the highly standardized nature (space) equipped with artificial facilities is obviously contradictory to the sentiment of pristine nature. We argue that manipulating ideology on social media normalizes and reproduces a dominant but controversial discourse of parenthood and nature consumption, which not only stereotypes the means of family leisure in nature but also fosters perceptions about the commoditization and othering of nature. This study makes an empirical contribution to consumption culture and offers an insight into the importance of identity issue in sustainability research.