Noel B. Salazar

Noel B. Salazar (born 1973) is a sociocultural anthropologist known for his transdisciplinary work on mobility and travel, the local-to-global nexus, discourses and imaginaries of 'Otherness', heritage, cultural brokering, cosmopolitanism and endurance.

Life

Noel B. Salazar was born in Dunkirk, France, of a Spanish father and a Belgian mother. He grew up in the historical Flemish town of Bruges, a celebrated cultural tourism destination. Salazar studied psychology, philosophy, and development studies at the University of Leuven (Belgium), neuropsychology at the University of Essex (UK), and anthropology and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania (United States). He is research professor in anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leuven, where he founde
CuMoRe
(Cultural Mobilities Research). His ethnographic fieldwork so far has focused on Indonesia, Tanzania, Chile and Belgium. Salazar currently lives in Brussels, the "capital of Europe", together with his spouse and two daughters.

Theory

Noel B. Salazar's main research interests include anthropologies of (im)mobility and travel, the local-to-global nexus, discourses and imaginaries of alterity, cultural brokering, cosmopolitanism and endurance. His anthropological work synthesizes ethnographic findings with conceptual frameworks developed within anthropology, sociology, geography, cultural studies, tourism studies, philosophy and psychology. Salazar has won numerous grants for his research projects (including from the National Science Foundation, the EU Seventh Framework Programme, and FWO).

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Salazar experienced first-hand the benefits of transdisciplinary research. His involvement within the Department of Anthropology's Public Interest Anthropology project taught him the necessity of bridging the divide between academia and the wider public. Together with archaeologist Benjamin W. Porter, now professor at the Near Eastern Studies Department, UC Berkeley, he applied the public interest perspective to heritage tourism. Understanding the changing meaning and value of (intangible) cultural heritage is still high on his research agenda.
It forms part of Salazar's broader work within the subfield of the anthropology of tourism. He uses the findings from his intended ethnographic fieldwork to shift the predominant focus in tourism studies on tourist and impact studies to a study of tourism service providers, showing their crucial role as intermediaries. In his book, ''Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing Imaginaries in Tourism and Beyond'' (2010), he critically analyses the circulation and dynamics of tourism imaginaries, illustrated with ethnographic data from Yogyakarta (Indonesia) and Arusha (Tanzania).

One of Salazar's key concepts is the one of ''imaginaries'', which he describes as "culturally shared and socially transmitted representational assemblages that are used as meaning-making devices (mediating how people act, cognize, and value the world)". He is currently using this concept to research the role of dominant discourses and images of (im)mobility in cultures across the globe. Salazar conceives mobility as a locally circulating socio-cultural construct that positively values the ability to move, the freedom of movement, and the tendency to change easily or quickly. Salazar tries to bridge the academic gap between tourism and migration studies by studying the analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching concept. More concretely, his cultural mobilities research helps us to understand the complex (dis)connections between tourism imaginaries and ideas of transcultural migration. This work happens in close collaboration with established anthropologists such as Nina Glick Schiller (University of Manchester), Nelson H. H. Graburn (University of California, Berkeley) and Alan Smart (University of Calgary).

Publications

Monographs

* 2018
Momentous Mobilities: Anthropological musings on the meanings of travel
'. Oxford: Berghahn.
* 2010
Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond
'. Oxford: Berghahn.

Edited volumes

* 202
Contemporary meanings of endurance: An interdisciplinary approach
London: Routledge. ith Jeroen Scheerder* 202
Pacing mobilities: Timing, intensity, tempo and duration of human movements
Oxford: Berghahn. ith Vered Amit* 201
Methodologies of mobility: Ethnography and experiment
Oxford: Berghahn. ith Alice Elliot & Roger Norum* 201
Mega-event mobilities: A critical analysis
London: Routledge. ith Christiane Timmerman, Johan Wets, Luana Gama Gato & Sarah Van den Broucke* 2016
Keywords of mobility: Critical engagements
Oxford: Berghahn. ith Kiran Jayaram* 2014
Regimes of mobility: Imaginaries and relationalities of power.
London: Routledge. ith Nina Glick Schiller* 2014
Tourism imaginaries: Anthropological approaches.
Oxford: Berghahn. [with Nelson H. H. Graburn]

Special journal issues

* 202
Mobile labour.
Theme issue of ''Mobilities'' 16(2). ith Cristiana Bastos and Andre Novoa
* 202
Modes de vie mobiles
Theme issue of ''Anthropologie et Sociétés'' 44(2). ith Celia Forget* 201
Key figures of mobility.
Theme issue of ''Social Anthropology'' 25(1). ith Jamie Coates* 2013
Contemporary ethnographic practice and the value of serendipity.
Theme issue of ''Social Anthropology'' 21(2). ith Isabelle Rivoal* 2013
Regimes of mobility.
Theme issue of ''Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies'' 39(2). ith Nina Glick-Schiller* 2011
Anthropological takes on (im)mobility.
Theme issue of ''Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power'' 18(6). ith Alan Smart* 2005
Resolving conflicts in heritage tourism: A public interest anthropology approach.
Theme issue of ''International Journal of Heritage Studies'' 11(5). ith Benjamin W. Porter* 2004
Heritage and tourism, PIA and global interests.
Theme issue of ''Anthropology in Action'' 11(2/3). ith Benjamin W. Porter

Journal articles (selection)

* 202
Immobility: The relational and experiential qualities of an ambiguous concept.
''Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies'' 11(3):3-21.
* 202
Anthropologies of the present and the presence of anthropology.
''Etnografia'' 2(16):6-24.
* 202
The paradox of mobility technology usage: How GPS sports watches keep “active lifestylers” (im)mobile.
''Mobility Humanities'' 1(1):62-75.
* 202
Post-national belongings, cosmopolitan becomings and mediating mobilities.
''Journal of Sociology'' 57(1):165-176.
* 202
Existential vs. essential mobilities: Insights from before, during and after a crisis.
''Mobilities'' 16(1):20-23.
* 202
On imagination and imaginaries, mobility and immobility: Seeing the forest for the trees.
''Culture & Psychology'' 26(4):768-777.
* 201
Theorizing mobility through concepts and figures.
''Tempo Social'' 30(2):153-168.
* 201
Anthropologies of tourism: What’s in a name?
''American Anthropologist'' 119(4):723-747.
* 201
The free movement of people around the world would be utopian.
''Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power'' 24(2):123-155. ith Simone Abram, Bela Feldman-Bianco, Shahram Khosravi and Nicholas de Genova* 201
To be or not to be a tourist: The role of concept-metaphors in tourism studies.
''Tourism Recreation Research'' 39(2):259-265.
* 201
Imagineering otherness: Anthropological legacies in contemporary tourism.
''Anthropological Quarterly'' 86(3):669-696.
* 2013
Regimes of mobility across the globe.
''Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies'' 39(2):183-200. ith Nina Glick-Schiller* 201
Contemporary ethnographic practice and the value of serendipity.
''Social Anthropology'' 21(2):178-185. ith Isabelle Rivoal* 201
Seasonal lifestyle tourism: The case of Chinese elites.
''Annals of Tourism Research'' 43(4):81-99. ith Yang Zhang* 201
Imagining mobility at the 'end of the world'.
''History and Anthropology'' 24(2):233-252.
* 2012
Tourism imaginaries: A conceptual approach.
''Annals of Tourism Research'' 39(2):863-882.
* 2012
Community-based cultural tourism: Issues, threats and opportunities.
''Journal of Sustainable Tourism'' 20(1):9-22.
* 2011
The power of imagination in transnational mobilities.
''Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture'' 18(6):576-598.
* 2011
Anthropological takes on (im)mobility.
''Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture'' 18(6):i-ix. ith Alan Smart* 201
Tourism and cosmopolitanism: A view from below.
''International Journal of Tourism Anthropology'' 1(1):55-69.
* 201
Towards an anthropology of cultural mobilities.
''Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture'', 1(1):53-68.
* 2009
Imaged or imagined? Cultural representations and the "tourismification" of peoples and places.
''Cahiers d'Études Africaines'' 193-194:49-71.
* 2009
A troubled past, a challenging present, and a promising future: Tanzania’s tourism development in perspective.
''Tourism Review International'' 12(3-4):259-273.
* 2008
Enough stories! Asian tourism redefining the roles of Asian tour guides.
''Civilisations'' 57(1/2):207-222.
* 2007
Towards a global culture of heritage interpretation? Evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania.
''Tourism Recreation Research'' 32(3):23-30.
* 2006
Touristifying Tanzania: Local guides, global discourse.
''Annals of Tourism Research'' 33(3): 833–852.
* 2006
Antropología del turismo en países en desarrollo: Análisis crítico de las culturas, poderes e identidades generados por el turismo.
''Tabula Rasa: Revista de Humanidades'' 5:99-128. he anthropology of tourism in developing countries: A critical analysis of tourism cultures, powers, and identities* 2006
Building a ‘culture of peace’ through tourism: Reflexive and analytical notes and queries.
''Universitas Humanística'' 62(2):319-333.
* 2005
Tourism and glocalization: ‘Local’ tour guiding.
''Annals of Tourism Research'' 32(3):628-646.
* 2005
Heritage tourism, conflict, and the public interest: An introduction.
''International Journal of Heritage Studies'' 11(5):361-370. ith Benjamin W. Porter

Service

Noel B. Salazar serves on the editorial boards of, among others, ''Journal of Sustainable Tourism'', ''Transfers'',
and ''Applied Mobilities''. He is editor of the ''Worlds in Motion Book Series (Berghahn)''.
From 2011 until 2015, he served on the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Anthropologists. In 2013, Salazar was elected as President of the association. Within EASA, he founded the Anthropology and Mobility Network (AnthroMob). In 2018, he was elected as Secretary-General of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences for a five-year period, after having served a five-year term as Vice-President of the organization. Between 2013 and 2018, he was also a member of the Young Academy of Belgium. Salazar is internationally known as a visionary, out-of-the-box thinker and keynote speaker (in English, Spanish, French, and Dutch).

Salazar is a founding member of the American Anthropological Association Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group (USA). From 2012 until 2018, he was chair of the Commission on the Anthropology of Tourism of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. He is an expert member of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee and the UNESCO-UNITWIN Network 'Culture, Tourism and Development'. In addition, Salazar is on UNESCO's and UNWTO's official roster of consultants. He has applied his expertise on tour guiding by giving professional tour guide trainings, and this in countries as varied as China, Indonesia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Belgium.

References

External links

Webpage of Salazar at the University of LeuvenWebpage of Salazar at Academia.eduWebpage of Salazar at Researchgate.netWebpage of Salazar at Google Scholar

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salazar, Noel B.
1973 births
Living people
Social anthropologists
Critical theorists
Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Alumni of the University of Essex
Belgian anthropologists
Scientists from Brussels
Writers about globalization
Tourism researchers