Pilgrimage - Sociological Perspectives in Contemporary Society #927937

Pilgrimage: Sociological Perspectives in Contemporary Society explores how the sacred persists, transforms, and re-emerges in the fluid conditions of late modernity. Bringing together contributions from multiple disciplines, the volume examines pilgrimage not merely as a religious journey but as a sociological paradigm that illuminates the intersections of body, faith, technology, and culture.
Through ethnographic, theoretical, and interpretative approaches, the authors investigate how traditional forms of devotion are rearticulated through contemporary practices—tattooing, digital mediation, literary narration, tourism, and embodied spirituality.
The essays trace the movement of the sacred from institutional spaces to the domains of the body, the digital, and the everyday. From sacred tattoos as expressions of identity and faith, to wearable technologies that translate devotion into data, to the literary and virtual paths of Santiago de Compostela, the studies highlight how the act of journeying continues to structure meaning and belonging. The volume also examines contested sacred spaces, such as the Anointing Stone in Jerusalem, where touch, gesture, and ritual reaffirm collective presence amid division.
Together, these perspectives propose a “sociology of the moving sacred,” one that recognizes pilgrimage as both metaphor and method—a dynamic practice of mobility, embodiment, and reflection. In an era marked by secularization, globalization, and digital interconnection, the book reveals that the sacred has not disappeared but has changed language, finding new forms of expression through the material, symbolic, and affective dimensions of contemporary life.