Spirituality and Emerging Forms of Social Mobilization In Contemporary Societies

Scholarship on social movements has concentrated on the processes of protest, resistance, and action centered around political, economic, and social grievances. However, contemporary societies have seen the rise of mobilization practices emerging outside usual activist spaces. In various cultural milieus, practices of yoga, meditation, mindfulness, pilgrimage, spiritual retreats, wellness communities, and digital spiritual communities are coming together to engage a large number of people through the values, experiences, and goals they share.

The objective of this session is to examine how spirituality leads to the mobilization and formation of communities through collective identities in contemporary societies. Although spirituality has been seen as an individual practice and experience, it is also capable of creating networks of involvement, belongingness, and solidarity among people who belong to different socioeconomic groups, castes, genders, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions.

We seek contributions that consider the relationship between spirituality and collective engagement through theoretical, empirical, and comparative means. Potential topics range from yoga and meditation networks, pilgrimages and sacred sites, spiritual and wellness communities, digital spirituality, international spirituality movements, emotions in mobilization, alternative solidarities, faith-based voluntary associations, to the role played by spirituality in today’s social change. It is hoped that through an exploration of spirituality as a social phenomenon and a driver of collective engagement, this panel will be able to expand the present debates on social mobilization.

Keywords: Social Mobilization; Collective Identity; Community Formation; Social Solidarity