Praxis Tool

This page presents an overview of the praxis tool developed through my dissertation research. Published specifics forthcoming to this website. However, my dissertation which demonstrates this tool is available on academia.edu: Process and Emergence

Emergence to Practice

The threads of this research emerged from the literature and field experiences. Field data and analysis illuminated the findings and the nuances of this dissertation. The tool and the framework to understand, and demonstrate, how to move into this Anthropos-de-centering of experience of place is thus explained here. This is a new materialist praxis tool for both research and adventure tourism. While this research is focused on the Himalaya specifically, and can apply directly to further research in that region, it is also transferable to other areas of adventure tourism. This tool is a diffraction apparatus. It is presented so that others may use it and understand the entanglements of place to decenter human. 

Embodied Observation 

This tool guides the process of embodied observation and topographic storytelling that aims to bring place into the center, play, and prominence. From my threads, these bring to the foreground a set of urgencies and reminders for being in place in the Anthropocene and recognizing a more hopeful future. Building upon the traditions of TEK and indigenous perspectives of place and new materialism, this praxis tool can be used to examine the adventure tourism industry as it relates to sustainability and make positive actions through a shift of perspective (reconfiguration). Facilitating this praxis tool requires an instinctual type of awareness from guides, educators, and facilitators. Being acutely attuned to the specific contexts (entanglements) of place and groups will allow for the praxis to unfold and be effectual. Fundamentally, it is not used to get to some point or destination, or even conclusion. It is about the process. It is a framework for assessing and analyzing the experience of a contextual place in spacetime. 

Six Points of Praxis*

Embodied Observation and Awareness

Topographic Storytelling

Reciprocal Relationships

Material-Discursive Renditions

Multispecies Encounters

Situated Awareness in Place and the Anthropocene

*The details of the Praxis are forthcoming in publication and will be updated here, or can be accessed through my dissertation here.

This praxis is intended to guide those in the adventure industry whether a guide, educator, or a facilitator to break from the script, outcomes or even the itinerary. This is not intended to be prescriptive but to engage in contextual embodiment and experience of place. The dominant goal-based adventure industry in current function is inherently anthropocentric. In this praxis, the aim is to make linear goals secondary (or not at all) to reciprocity and reverence and respect for the multitudinous relationships humans experience with more-than-human when embodied with place, and in this case, mountains. Perhaps, the goal of getting to the top still occurs, but in a different journey and process than anticipated. As Lynch's (2012) call for context-based research in adventure programs noted, locally relevant details are important.