Mobility, space and agency: pilgrimage by humans and others

Abstract

Purpose

Pilgrimage brings humans and other-than-humans together through a dual process – movement across space and the transformation of space through the process of sacralisation. This paper aims to explore this dual process by outlining the development of qualitative research on contemporary pilgrimage where the dominant representational approach which focuses on human agency has been complemented by a relational perspective where statues, springs and rocks, for example, are seen as possessing their own agency that influences human action.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper describes the development of qualitative research on contemporary pilgrimage by bringing together both the representational and relational approach and drawing on the author’s experience of pilgrimage over many years and his reflections on that experience as a trained qualitative researcher.

Findings

This paper explores the ways in which the dominant representational approach in pilgrimage studies can be complemented by the relational approach by drawing on the author’s experience of pilgrimage in three different contexts

Originality/value

The paper is original by bringing together both the representational and relational perspectives, contextualising them through the author’s experience of different types of pilgrimage and linking pilgrimage to the wider issues of migration, space and agency.

Citation

Eade, J. (2023), "Mobility, space and agency: pilgrimage by humans and others", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 68-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-01-2023-0011