How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World

How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World argues that a renewed attention to gravity as both a metaphoric sensibility and a physical experience can help transform moments of personal disorientation into an opportunity to reflect on the important relationship between individual resiliency and communal responsibility.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 21 February 2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World is a groundbreaking exploration of embodiment that treats gravity as the central organizing force for thinking and navigating our twenty-first-century world. Author Ann Cooper Albright makes a compelling argument that paying renewed attention to gravity as both a metaphorical sensibility and a physical experience can transform moments of personal disorientation into a valuable opportunity to reflect on the crucial connection between individual resilience and collective responsibility.

Albright, a renowned thinker in dance improvisation, delves into the profound impact of repetitive imagery depicting falling bodies, bombed-out buildings, and displaced populations, as well as the recurring evocations of global economies and governments in a state of discursive free fall or dissolution. She seeks to understand the kind of fear that gets embedded in connective tissue when there is an underlying anxiety that certain aspects of our world are at risk of falling apart. To answer this question, Albright draws on insights from cognitive studies, tracing the discussions of meaning, body, and language through the works of Mark Johnson, Thomas Csordas, and George Lakoff, among others.

Furthermore, she delves into the past decade's debate in contemporary media concerning the implications of weightless and two-dimensional social media exchanges on attention structures and learning, as well as their impact on the personal growth and socialization of a generation of young adults. Each chapter seamlessly weaves discussions of movement actions with their cultural implications, documenting specific bodily experiences and then tracing their ideological ripples throughout the world.

Through her insightful and thought-provoking work, How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World offers a fresh perspective on embodiment and provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities we face in our rapidly changing world.

Weight: 382g
Dimension: 157 x 234 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190873684