The CSP Network (EASA) panel proposes rethinking the interaction between contemporary spiritualities and new social movements from an anthropological perspective. From personal reform to structural change, we will discuss how these spiritualities fuel forms of collective mobilization.
The events of 1968 significantly reshaped social movements and religious identities, marking a turning point in protests against state control and authoritarianism, while fostering emancipation and transformation. Rooted in alternative lifestyles and values that rejected postwar consumerism, these movements provided fertile ground for “new social movements” (Touraine 1978; Neveu 2010). Although the notion of “social movement” has been widely debated (Filleule 2009), it is generally understood as a collective process through which individuals and groups mobilize around shared interests to challenge or transform social and cultural structures (Neveu 2010).
Movements ranging from anti-globalization to Occupy and the Arab Spring revived the “critical spirit” of May 1968 through new politics of space and participation (Pawling 2013). For instance, the Occupy movement transformed indignation into participatory solidarity and proposed “a different way of living” beyond consumerism (Chomsky 2013).
Since the 1970s and 1980s, intersections between social movements and contemporary spiritualities have emerged, including eco-paganism, New Age peace activism, holistic practices linked to Indigenous cosmologies, and spiritual expressions within racial justice, neo-rural, and queer movements. Such interactions have been overlooked in anthropological and ethnographic approaches.
The CSP Network (EASA) panel addresses these politico-spiritual mobilizations in which contemporary spiritualities fuel new social movements and grassroots initiatives. These mobilizations unfold through bodily participation, protest, and activism, engaging both individual and collective processes that activate solidarity practices and emotional pathways. We welcome epistemological, empirical, and methodological papers that explore the interactions between contemporary spiritualities and collective mobilization from a bottom-up anthropological perspective.
Convenors:
- Denise Lombardi (École pratique des hautes études, France) – lombardi.denise(at)gmail.com
- Eleonora Di Renzo (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) – eleonora.direnzo(at)uniroma1.it
- Manéli Farahmand (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) – maneli.farahmand(at)cic-info.ch
Session 1 Friday 24 July, 2026, 11:30-13:15 (CEST), on site and online:
- “Staging identity: Pagan culture in a far-right Catholic context”, Emmanuel Casajus (Université Paris-Cité)
- “Breathing as transformation: Feminist facilitation and the politics of breathwork”, Filis Demirov (Freie Universität Berlin)
- “Taking care of a ‘sacred’ nature: Soft ecology and non-militant forms of environmental engagement in the eco-spiritual milieu”, Véronique Altglas (Queen’s University Belfast)
Session 2 Friday 24 July, 2026, 14:15-16:00 (CEST), on site and online:
- “Mediumship and passing: The politics of representation of ‘Ciganas de Alma’ (gypsies of the soul) in Brazil’s valley of the dawn”, Mariana Sabino-Salazar (Czech Academy of Sciences)
- “Popular religiosity in Peru: A repository for narratives and practices of social transformation?”, Magdalena Andrea Kraus (University of Vienna)
- “Spiritual and fundamentalist seekers: A comparative perspective on political mobilisation”, Yael Dansac (Université libre de Bruxelles) & Julia Itel (University of Fribourg)
The full programme and all the details are available here.