Books by Christopher A Howard
Routledge, 2017
Mobile Lifeworlds illustrates how the imaginaries and ideals of travel, especially those of untou... more Mobile Lifeworlds illustrates how the imaginaries and ideals of travel, especially those of untouched nature and spiritual enlightenment, are consistent with media representations of the Himalayan region, romanticism and modernity at large. Blending tourism and pilgrimage, travel across Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Northern India is often inspired and oriented by a search for authenticity, adventure and Otherness. Such valued ideals are shown, however, to be contested by the very forces and configurations that enable global mobility.
The role ubiquitous media and mobile technologies now play in framing travel experiences are explored, revealing a situation in which actors are neither here nor there, but increasingly are ‘inter-placed’ across planetary landscapes. Beyond institutionalised religious contexts and the visiting of sacred sites, the author shows how a secular religiosity manifests in practical, bodily encounters with foreign environments. This book is unique in that it draws on a dynamic and innovative set of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, especially phenomenology, the mobilities paradigm and philosophical anthropology. The volume breaks fresh ground in pilgrimage, tourism and travel studies by unfolding the complex relationships between the virtual, imaginary and corporeal dynamics of contemporary mobile lifeworlds.
Book Chapters by Christopher A Howard
Handbook of Critical Posthumanism, 2022
This chapter explores the relationship between anthropology and critical posthumanism, two lines ... more This chapter explores the relationship between anthropology and critical posthumanism, two lines of enquiry that proceed from the fundamental question: what is a human being? From seeds sowed by poststructuralism/modernism, an 'ontological turn' in anthropology over the past several decades has decentred and expanded the disciplinary scope and its traditional subjectthe human. Along with putting 'the anthropos' back in question, longstanding dualisms such as nature and culture, subject and object, human and nonhuman have been subject to radical critique. After tracing influential developments in two key subfields, 1) indigenous multinaturalism and 2) multispecies anthropology, we explore the elective affinities between anthropology, phenomenology and posthumanism. In the final section, we discuss the anthropolitical implications of critical posthuman perspectives, which open space for thinking and acting otherwise in the Anthropocene.
Oxford Handbook of Schopenhauer, Oxford University Press, 2020
This chapter explores the influence of Schopenhauer on the contemporary French author Michel Houe... more This chapter explores the influence of Schopenhauer on the contemporary French author Michel Houellebecq. After surveying some biographical similarities between the two authors, the essay explores the significance of Schopenhauer's thought, both his metaphysics of the Will and his moral philosophy, for Houellebecq's literature. It will be shown how Houellebecq reaffirms Schopenhauer's Buddhistic diagnosis of 'life as suffering', but goes further to imagine possible worlds where the human condition has been overcome by techno-scientific interventions. In doing so, Houellebecq carries out a devastating critique of the present age from the standpoint of various post-human futures. Another theme to be explored is the omnipresence of desire and the sexual impulse that both Schopenhauer and Houellebecq are deeply preoccupied with.
Tourism and Embodiment, Routledge, 2019
This chapter explores the convergence of embodiment, tourism and mobile technologies in a globall... more This chapter explores the convergence of embodiment, tourism and mobile technologies in a globally networked context. The proliferation of media in the twenty-first century corresponds to a qualitative and quantitative increase in virtual, imaginary and corporeal mobilities (Urry 2007, Howard 2012, Germann Molz and Paris 2013, Hannam et al. 2014). In a world of accelerated and overlapping mobilities, possibilities for moving and dwelling in multiple realities have expanded and intensified, facilitating what Germann Molz (2012) calls ‘interactive travel’. Living in a world that is increasingly ‘on the move’ points to a situation in which mobile devices, social media and networking technologies facilitate a ‘coordinated togetherness’ on a planetary scale. By reconfiguring spatial and social relations, interactive travel problematises long-standing tourism concepts such as home and away, the ritual process and the tourist gaze. It also opens new lines of inquiry for a less developed but central aspect of tourism: embodiment. We aim to address this gap here, taking a particular methodological focus on the phenomenological concept of responsivity in the context of interactive travel.
Transnational Frontiers of Asia and Latin America Since 1800, Routledge, 2017
This chapter explores the correlations between symbolic representations of the Himalaya as an enc... more This chapter explores the correlations between symbolic representations of the Himalaya as an enchanted landscape and the history of travel in the region. Focusing primarily on the modern context, in which western colonial explorers and early mountaineers ‘discovered’ the Himalaya and began circulating utopic imagery of a ‘lost horizon’, this is viewed in relation to the longer history of religious significance and pilgrimage in the region. In the case of the former, the continuity of salient themes from the Grand Tour into modern forms of tourism are discussed, as is the importance of Romantic thought. The ideals and imaginaries that continue to bring western travellers to the Himalaya, especially those of wild nature and spiritual enlightenment are shown to be consistent with media representations (e.g. films, guidebooks, travel literature) of the region and the wider discourse of modernity.
Rather than being viewed as a set of purely western, orientalist projections, from a transcultural and mobilities perspective the chapter considers how such imagery and forms of meaning-centred travel overlap with those produced in the regional context. Long before western contact, the Himalaya was represented a sacred landscape, a place where pilgrims and ascetics could ‘walk with the Gods’. Such representations, it is argued, emanate from the literal and symbolic geography of the region, particularly its peripheral location in relation to major urban centres and also from the fact that it is home to the highest mountains on earth. The chapter considers how across cultures, mountains and remote wilderness areas are often imbued with mythological qualities, especially timelessness.
In contemporary times, the image of the Himalaya as an enchanted landscape standing outside of modernity circulates across global mediascapes. While contemporary Himalayan journeys are often inspired and oriented by a search for authenticity, spirituality and wild nature, such ideals are shown to be contested by neoliberal globalisation. The steady growth of tourism in the region will be shown to be having some paradoxically destructive consequences not only for the enchanted imaginary, but the local environment and cultures of the Himalaya.
Slow Tourism: Experiences and Mobilities. Fullagar, S., Markwell, K., & Wilson, E (eds.). Bristol: Channel View, pp. 11-24 , 2012
We are pilgrims through time -Augustine
Journal Articles by Christopher A Howard
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 2023
Well-being is increasingly being promoted and used to describe social progress. However, tension ... more Well-being is increasingly being promoted and used to describe social progress. However, tension exists between framings that focus on enhancing individual well-being (living well) and societal or collective framings of well-being (living well together). Well-being is central to Aotearoa New Zealand's COVID-19 response and recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic reopened debates about what kind of society people want to live in. Our research explored the 'shared typical' or commonality of experiences of the first wave of COVID-19 response in Aotearoa New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews provided insights into a wide range of concerns participants faced and what that meant for their well-being and the well-being of Aotearoa New Zealand. We found that well-being is both multidimensional and hierarchical, and while people talked about their own wellbeing, it was often in the context of broader social well-being. These findings support research showing that well-being is relational. We suggest that Indigenous models of well-being are well placed to inform policy strategies enabling holistic well-being, but this needs to be done in ways that pair Indigenous and Western knowledge, rather than integrating or assimilating this knowledge into Western science approaches.
Sites: Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 2018
A review essay of three recent books exploring the boundaries of the ethnographic frontier, inclu... more A review essay of three recent books exploring the boundaries of the ethnographic frontier, including The Mushroom at the End of the World (Tsing), Anthropologies and Futures and Making Homes.
Impact: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2017
Journal of Consumer Culture, 2016
Based on a mobile ethnography of tourism and pilgrimage in the Himalayan region, this article int... more Based on a mobile ethnography of tourism and pilgrimage in the Himalayan region, this article interprets performances and imaginaries of Western travellers as a meta-commentary on late modern life. Being typically critical of consumer culture, Himalayan travellers often demonstrated positive yet naive appraisal and nostalgia for places and people perceived as non-modern, natural and authentic. Such eco-utopian imaginaries are consistent with media representations of the region and the wider discourse of reflexive modernity. While Himalayan journeys are often inspired and oriented by a search for authenticity and the seduction of difference, such valued ideals are contested by the same late capitalist conditions that make encounters with the Other and global mobility possible. Tourist consumers thus seek to capture authentic objects of desire before they are destroyed, while paradoxically contributing to their destruction in the process. At the same time, it is shown how the quest for authenticity exposes travellers to the possibility of other, less consuming and more sustainable forms of life.
Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 2015
This article explores foreign travel as an affective experience, embodied practice and form of le... more This article explores foreign travel as an affective experience, embodied practice and form of learning. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on tourism and pilgrimage in the Himalayan region, the phenomenological notions of ‘home world’ and ‘alien world’ are employed to discuss how perceptions of strangeness and everyday practices are shaped by enculturation and socialisation processes. It is shown that travellers bring the habitus and doxa acquired in the home world to foreign situations, where these embodied knowledge schemes and abilities for skilful coping can break down. In a home world, cultural patterns offer actors ‘trustworthy recipes for interpreting the social world’ (Schutz 1980, p. 501-02) that allow everyday experience to go largely unnoticed and unquestioned. In alien worlds, however, travellers as strangers encounter differences and disturbances that disrupt experience and cause things normally overlooked to become ‘lit up’. Using Husserlian and Heideggerian notions of ‘light breaks’ and Dewey’s theory of challenge, the author argues that foreign travel generates a form of embodied learning. This occurs first on the level of the pre-reflexive body that is affected and solicited by new and unfamiliar demands of an alien world. Through continuous adjustment of habits and practices in foreign environments, the author suggests that an embodied cosmopolitanism is generated via accumulated travel experience. This calls attention to the role of the lived body in travel experience, as well as the role of place and environment in shaping human practices, perceptions and modes of dwelling.
Phenomenology and Practice , 2015
A response to the special issue, 'Being Online', (Vol. 8, no. 4) of Phenomenology & Practice.
Scripta Nova: Revista de geografía y ciencias sociales, 2014
El siguiente artículo estudia las prácticas tecno-nómadas de movimiento y organización en viajero... more El siguiente artículo estudia las prácticas tecno-nómadas de movimiento y organización en viajeros globales y en red. Trabajando sobre un estudio de caso etnográfico de un viaje por Nepal y la India, se centra en las experiencias, movimientos y prácticas nómadas que incluyen, entre otras, las relaciones de los viajeros con el empleo y con la “interlocalidad”. En particular, se exploran las formas del viajar mediadas por la tecnología digital y el papel que desempeña en ellas la idea de “residencia en el des-distanciamiento” en lo que denominamos, siguiendo a Heidegger “Gestell digital” (el término Gestell fue usado por Heidegger para describir lo que subyace en la tecnología). Se analizan también algunas de las implicaciones del medio y las prácticas tecno nómadas, y como éstas manifiestan y reflejan tendencias sociales más amplias, incluyendo la hiper-conectividad, la dis-conectividad y las trayectorias narrativas no lineales caracterizadas por ser cada vez más móviles, globales y contingentes. Como conclusión, se discuten algunas implicaciones para un enfoque más sensible y responsable del espacio, para el desarrollo sostenible del viajar y el vivir, así como el significado de una ética de lo que Heidegger llamó Gelassenheit (serenidad para aceptar y rechazar al mismo tiempo el mundo técnico)
Scripta Nova: Revista de geografía y ciencias sociales, Feb 2014
The following article describes tech-nomadic practices of moving and organizing of travelers situ... more The following article describes tech-nomadic practices of moving and organizing of travelers situated and placed in global and networked contexts. Drawing upon an ethnographic case study in Nepal and India, we focus on travelers and their nomadic movements, experiences and practices, which included among other, those of work in relation to their ‘inter-placedness’. Based on a phenomenological understanding of place and emplacement as embodied life-worldly and relational or processual events, the mediating and re-configuring role of how mobile technologies enframe contemporary mobile practices, experiences and lifestyles will be analyzed. In particular, we explore digitally mediated forms of travelling as a way of drifting in and out via ‘portable personhood’ and the role of dwelling in de-distancing in the age of ‘digital Ge-stell’ (enframent). Finally, this paper discusses some implications of the described tech-nomadic milieu and practices as manifesting and reflecting broader social trends, including hyper and dis-connectivity, and non-linear narrative trajectories characterized as becoming increasing mobile, global and contingent. By concluding we discuss some implication for a more place-responsive and responsible approach for sustainable traveling and living as well as the significance of an ethos of Gelassenheit.
The Vernacularist, 2016
A perspective of relational ecology implies it is not enough to rethink the relationships between... more A perspective of relational ecology implies it is not enough to rethink the relationships between traditional categories like nature and culture, human and animal or human and technology. This is because binary oppositions or dualisms are already set up by these concepts. As phenomenologists like Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty sought to demonstrate, oppositional thinking is faulty because it misses the between that makes a relation possible. Emphasizing the reversibility of energies between bodies and worlds, humans and non-humans, humans and technologies, phenomenologists proceed from the relational understanding that human existence is always dynamic co-existence.
Literature and Aesthetics, 2012
Book Reviews by Christopher A Howard
Thesis 11, 2016
A review of Steve Matthewman's 'Technology and Social Theory' (2011).
Sites: Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Dec 30, 2014
University Lifeworlds: the existential--anthropological vision of Michael Jackson The 2013 public... more University Lifeworlds: the existential--anthropological vision of Michael Jackson The 2013 publication of Lifeworlds: essays in existential anthropology marked an exciting occasion for readers who follow the work of veteran anthropologist Michael Jackson. The excitement has to do with the fact that for the past three or four decades, Jackson has been a clear and singular voice in a field where few voices remain audible. Rewarding readers with equal amounts intellectual rigour and literary pleasure, Jackson's books somehow manage to bring together theoretical refinement and methodological advancement with poignant storytelling, poetry, personal confession and philosophical wonder. A seasoned ethnographer, he writes with the style and grace of a mature novelist, weaving lived stories with penetrating insights from existential philosophers, poets and other voices one does not expect to find in books of anthropology. A sensitive observer and narrator of the human condition, Jackson skillfully guides readers on paths through many of life's most vexing questions. Along the way, we see that the trials and tribulations human beings face, the suffering they endure, the ways they learn to cope and find meaning in the face of pain, uncertainty and injustice are just so many variations of what is at the core of being human.
Sites: Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies , Dec 30, 2013
Book review of Serendipity in Anthropological Research: the nomadic turn.
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Books by Christopher A Howard
The role ubiquitous media and mobile technologies now play in framing travel experiences are explored, revealing a situation in which actors are neither here nor there, but increasingly are ‘inter-placed’ across planetary landscapes. Beyond institutionalised religious contexts and the visiting of sacred sites, the author shows how a secular religiosity manifests in practical, bodily encounters with foreign environments. This book is unique in that it draws on a dynamic and innovative set of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, especially phenomenology, the mobilities paradigm and philosophical anthropology. The volume breaks fresh ground in pilgrimage, tourism and travel studies by unfolding the complex relationships between the virtual, imaginary and corporeal dynamics of contemporary mobile lifeworlds.
Book Chapters by Christopher A Howard
Rather than being viewed as a set of purely western, orientalist projections, from a transcultural and mobilities perspective the chapter considers how such imagery and forms of meaning-centred travel overlap with those produced in the regional context. Long before western contact, the Himalaya was represented a sacred landscape, a place where pilgrims and ascetics could ‘walk with the Gods’. Such representations, it is argued, emanate from the literal and symbolic geography of the region, particularly its peripheral location in relation to major urban centres and also from the fact that it is home to the highest mountains on earth. The chapter considers how across cultures, mountains and remote wilderness areas are often imbued with mythological qualities, especially timelessness.
In contemporary times, the image of the Himalaya as an enchanted landscape standing outside of modernity circulates across global mediascapes. While contemporary Himalayan journeys are often inspired and oriented by a search for authenticity, spirituality and wild nature, such ideals are shown to be contested by neoliberal globalisation. The steady growth of tourism in the region will be shown to be having some paradoxically destructive consequences not only for the enchanted imaginary, but the local environment and cultures of the Himalaya.
Journal Articles by Christopher A Howard
Book Reviews by Christopher A Howard
The role ubiquitous media and mobile technologies now play in framing travel experiences are explored, revealing a situation in which actors are neither here nor there, but increasingly are ‘inter-placed’ across planetary landscapes. Beyond institutionalised religious contexts and the visiting of sacred sites, the author shows how a secular religiosity manifests in practical, bodily encounters with foreign environments. This book is unique in that it draws on a dynamic and innovative set of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, especially phenomenology, the mobilities paradigm and philosophical anthropology. The volume breaks fresh ground in pilgrimage, tourism and travel studies by unfolding the complex relationships between the virtual, imaginary and corporeal dynamics of contemporary mobile lifeworlds.
Rather than being viewed as a set of purely western, orientalist projections, from a transcultural and mobilities perspective the chapter considers how such imagery and forms of meaning-centred travel overlap with those produced in the regional context. Long before western contact, the Himalaya was represented a sacred landscape, a place where pilgrims and ascetics could ‘walk with the Gods’. Such representations, it is argued, emanate from the literal and symbolic geography of the region, particularly its peripheral location in relation to major urban centres and also from the fact that it is home to the highest mountains on earth. The chapter considers how across cultures, mountains and remote wilderness areas are often imbued with mythological qualities, especially timelessness.
In contemporary times, the image of the Himalaya as an enchanted landscape standing outside of modernity circulates across global mediascapes. While contemporary Himalayan journeys are often inspired and oriented by a search for authenticity, spirituality and wild nature, such ideals are shown to be contested by neoliberal globalisation. The steady growth of tourism in the region will be shown to be having some paradoxically destructive consequences not only for the enchanted imaginary, but the local environment and cultures of the Himalaya.
been made than mitigation, more data and better tools to inform investment decisions, and a wide range of actions to overcome system inertia and shift investment patterns. While there is some momentum towards climate investment, especially for mitigation, much more needs to be done to make climate investment consistent with New Zealand’s climate goals.
Firm characteristics
• The number of firms has increased at an annual average rate of 8.3 per cent between 2015 and 2020. The vast majority of these are sole traders or contractors.
• The number of firms with multiple employees has not changed much since 2010. However, the current data does not yet reflect the impact of COVID-19.
• The New Zealand screen sector is structured increasingly around temporary working arrangements and project-based contracts, similar to common practices within the gig economy.
Employment and Skills
• It is estimated that around 13,900 people are working in the screen sector; either self-employed or as waged and salaried employees.
• The number of employees who earn a set wage or salary in the sector peaked in 2009 and has been declining ever since. The Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Act was introduced in 2010.1
• Most new employees in the screen sector are contractors or self-employed, working mainly in the post-production sub-sector in Wellington.
• The number of individuals employed in the screen sector in Auckland has remained roughly stable since 2010.
• Employment rates in the production sub-sector in Wellington peaked in 2012 and have remained static for almost the past decade.
In terms of age structure, the region has seen an important increase in the age group between 20 and 29 years, and decreases have been obvious for the age groups 5 to 19 years and 30 to 44 years. From 50 years onwards, all age groups have increased, though Auckland’s population is relatively young compared to the national average. With these developments in mind, we report on the findings of three research projects carried out in the greater Auckland area: household interviews; employer surveys; and focus groups with school leavers.
Household interviews with 54 people resident in Auckland revealed three dominant viewpoints towards diversity which we describe as: ‘Living with Diversity’; ‘Resisting Diversity’; and ‘Liberal toward Diversity’. Living with Diversity refers to those who embrace diversity in all its forms and want to live in a diverse community. Those who share this viewpoint actively seek opportunities for engaging with others who are different from themselves. Resisting Diversity is characterised by resistance toward the increasing diversity in Auckland. Those who share this viewpoint appear to feel threatened by the changes they see occurring around them and struggle with what they perceive to be a loss of ‘kiwi’ values. Liberal toward Diversity is characterised by an understanding and an acceptance that diversity is beneficial for Auckland although this factor shares many features of the ‘Living with Diversity’ viewpoint, a central
9
difference is that diversity is not commonly a feature of their own lives. Instead, diversity is somewhat abstract, existing as an idea as opposed to everyday life experiences.
A survey of employers in ICT, education and health revealed that employers in general use similar strategies for recruiting and retaining employees, specifically increased training and professional development and flexible working arrangements. Employers also generally agreed that promoting local regional development, providing labour market research, and coordinating discussions and action plans among key stakeholders in the labour market were ways in which central government could help with recruitment. The large majority of employers reported that their companies employed immigrants who were perceived as bringing more benefits than challenges, especially different perspectives and a better work ethic than those born locally. Employee attitudes and environment/environmental policies were cited by all participants as important current challenges. Employers in general anticipated more challenges in the future.
Focus groups on ethnic diversity were carried out in two Auckland schools. Students generally agreed that there are benefits to living in a diverse region, though outside of school, many claimed that their interactions with different ethnicities and cultures were limited. Students from both schools identified themes of safety and racial ethnic tensions, though in different contexts. The majority of students wanted to stay in Auckland once they left school although many students viewed Australia as an appealing destination due to higher salaries and better job prospects. Many students expressed pride in their local community and intended to remain in the same area into adulthood. When considering the future, students from both schools were concerned about financial issues, especially the high cost of living in Auckland and student loan fees.
1) What are the key factors of health, safety and well-being at work?
2) What can New Zealand learn from other jurisdictions?
3) What is the future of health, safety and well-being at work?
Globally and within Aotearoa New Zealand, there are signals that travellers are aware of their impact and are wanting to ‘give back’ in some way. In early 2019 the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) sought to validate and comprehend the concept and explore the uptake of voluntourism in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Voluntourism by definition is tourists who offer their time and skills voluntarily, usually to a local community or project as they travel, typically to gain greater intrinsic value and more worthwhile travelling experiences.
›› deepens understanding of business innovation and research and development (R&D)
in New Zealand
›› is based on interviews with a diverse set of 30 New Zealand businesses
›› focuses on businesses’ views about the meaning of, motivations for, constraints to, and
government support of, innovation and R&D
›› finds that:
–– businesses tend to think of innovation as changes to products or operational processes,
rather than changes to marketing methods or managerial processes which are also
included in standard definitions of innovation
–– R&D tends to mean ‘D’ (development) rather than ‘R’ (research) to R&D-performing
businesses
–– businesses seek a number of benefits from their innovations and R&D activities with the
ultimate aim of improving their bottom lines
–– money, time and skills are the main constraints to innovation and R&D
–– despite the constraints that many businesses described, most businesses that want to
innovate are able to do so nonetheless
–– awareness of government support for innovation and R&D is limited
–– businesses believe that government can do more to support business innovation.
›› implies, among other things, that there is an opportunity to increase awareness of
government support for innovation and R&D.
‘Oceanic Winegrowing in Aotearoa’s Far North’
published June 2022, JancisRobinson.com
https://cluboenologique.com/story/meet-the-worlds-surfing-winemakers/
The five essays here were originally published in the online journal, Mediapart, on February 1st, 2010, following a newly released edition of The World of Will and Representation by Folio. Alex and I translated them for the purpose of writing an essay on the influence of Schopenhauer on Houellebecq for the Oxford Handbook of Schopenhauer (forthcoming, 2018), the draft of which is available here: https://www.academia.edu/28668968/The_Next_Metaphysical_Mutation_Schopenhauer_Buddhism_and_Michel_Houellebecq_on_the_art_of_suffering
For Houellebecq’s original essays in French, see:
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/edition/bookclub/article/010210/en-presence-de-schopenhauer-15
Being where? Mobile inter-placing in the age of “digital Ge-stell”
In this talk, I explore some of the meanings and implications of mobile technologies and 21st Century media. Drawing on research on ‘around the world travellers,’ I focus on the role the internet and mobile technologies play in mediating embodied perceptions and performances of place. Based on a phenomenological understanding of place and the body, I analyse how mobile technologies allow human beings to extend their corporeal presence across “planetary landscapes.” Facilitated by contemporary media and mobility infrastructures, I suggest that digitally equipped travellers are relationally “inter-placed.” With this concept, I aim to illustrate how virtual mobility overlaps with corporeal mobilities.