Exploring the cultural legitimacy of backpacker ideology and identity

This research explores cultural legitimacy to establish the relevance of backpacker ideology to backpacker identity. Cultural legitimacy is important because backpacker identity is shaped by ideology and ideology forms the basis for determining what is legitimate. It is also important as questions have been asked in the literature whether backpacker ideology is something that is espoused rather than practiced, because there are differing views in this regard, and because there is very little research that considers ideology from the member perspective. The research contributes to the backpacker literature by identifying how backpacker ideology frames what is culturally legitimate.