My most recent publication was posted online today, in the journal Mobilities. I believe it is a highly readable account of work in a Japanese inn, told through a critical lens of mobilities studies that has been largely ignored since the founding of this journal. I welcome any feedback.

Access it here at the publisher or contact me directly:

Mobilities Amid the Production of Fixities: Labor in a Japanese Inn

ABSTRACT

Building on recent interest in fixities within mobilities studies, this article analyzes

the ‘production of fixities’ in Japanese inns, or ryokan. I describe the complex ways

that different scales and regimes of mobility interact on the bodies, personal lives, careers,

and aspirations of inn employees. I show how the daily grind of producing fixity for tourists

engenders ambivalence toward both movement and stasis, mediated through gender, age,

and other circumstances. Ultimately, I argue that mobility and fixity should not be seen as

opposites, but as mutually constitutive conditions that intermingle in nuanced ways in the

everyday lives of individuals.

Latest publication