Love Walks: The Sojourned Self, Social Solidarity, and Pilgrimage

• In Event: 4467 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtables (Cosponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 9: Religion

Abstract

In this paper, my research site is pilgrimage, particularly El Camino de Santiago, as a space of liminality. I research the experiences of people who participate in this pilgrimage liminality, focusing on both self-concept work and social solidarity formation. I also explore how pilgrimage may be related to social justice pursuits, specifically embodied in the lived experiences of certain (in)famous social justice. Therefore, a research question is: How does pilgrimage create social solidarity? Subsequently, I also ask: How is pilgrimage used to work on the self-concept? However, my main research question is: How, if at all, is pilgrimage used as a tool of structural resistance?

Regarding my first research question – How is pilgrimage used to work on the self-concept? – three main themes appear from my respondents: (1) respondents participate in pilgrimage during a transitional life period; (2) when defining “pilgrimage,” respondents tend to describe a relationship between Self and others; and (3) “good’ pilgrimage experiences eclipse “bad” experiences among respondents, with a majority of illustrations including descriptions of social connections with others. My second research question – How does pilgrimage create social solidarity? – illuminates three main themes: (1) participants describe relational bonds to others participating in pilgrimage as a “family”; (2) respondents suggest the common goal of researching Santiago as a reason for social solidarity; and (3) respondents imply that trust is built between pilgrimage participants because of a stranger-status which, they suggest, reduces social risk. My main question – How, if at all, is pilgrimage used as a tool of structural resistance? – elicits a conversation around walking as societal opposition. It is my intention that this paper-sojourn provides insight into how pilgrimage creates social solidarity and into the relationship between self-concept, social solidarity, and social justice.

Author

• Beverly M. Pratt, University of Maryland