Paper short abstract:

The study of contemporary pilgrimage has drawn very productively on the interpretive and representational paradigms Yet, an alternative approach has developed inspired by relational paradigms and I will discuss here how pilgrimage studies is benefiting from this relational turn.

Paper long abstract:

Since the early 1990s ethnographic studies of contemporary pilgrimage around the world have steadily increased and have drawn very productively on such key concepts as communitas, contestation, mobility and secularisation. Although attention has been paid to religious pilgrimage, the diversity and changing character of pilgrimage has been acknowledged through such categories as spiritual and secular pilgrimage, military pilgrimage and pilgrimage tourism. In terms of theory these studies have been informed by the interpretive and representational paradigms which have long dominated anthropology and related social sciences. Recently, alternative approaches have been explored drawing on relational, ‘more than representational’ paradigms within the social sciences. These approaches have encouraged us to focus on the interaction between humans and other actors, where agency is not just confined to humans. I will consider the contribution of this turn to the dynamic field of pilgrimage studies, drawing on participant observation as a helper at the French Marian shrine of Lourdes and a walker on two one day events organised by the British Pilgrimage Trust. I will focus particularly on the agency of water and sensual experience.