Papers may examine how ritual practices contribute to experiences of belonging, self-transformation, well-being and social connection. By bringing together comparative perspectives on contemporary ritualization, the session aims to foster dialogue on how collective practices generate meaningful experiences and how ritual forms continue to evolve within changing cultural and religious landscapes.

ISSR/SISR 2027, Buenos Aires

Argument

In many Euro-American contemporary societies, collective practices such as festivals, spiritual gatherings, alternative healing rituals and participatory events are increasingly becoming spaces where individuals seek meaning, connection and transformative experiences. Often emerging beyond institutional religion, these contexts mobilize ritualized forms of interaction, embodied participation and shared attention that shape how experiences are lived and interpreted.Temporary events generate experiences that are more intense than those of everyday life while remaining inherently fleeting. Consequently, they often give rise to extraordinary experiential environments that are fluid, open-ended and community-forming.This session explores how contemporary ritual practices are organized, enacted and experienced in concrete social situations. Rather than approaching these practices through beliefs or doctrinal systems, the panel focuses on ritual processes themselves and on how participants construct meaning through active participation, affective engagement and collective interaction. Particular attention will be given to experiential dimensions of ritual, including temporality, spatiality, relational dynamics, forms of temporary community and individual experience.We invite contributions from anthropology, sociology, religious studies and related fields addressing diverse empirical contexts, including festivals, spiritual or ‘New Age’ gatherings, therapeutic and healing practices, artistic and immersive events, community rituals and other forms of lived religion. Papers may examine how ritual practices contribute to experiences of belonging, self-transformation, well-being and social connection. By bringing together comparative perspectives on contemporary ritualization, the session aims to foster dialogue on how collective practices generate meaningful experiences and how ritual forms continue to evolve within changing cultural and religious landscapes.

Submission guidelines

Submission online on the conference website.

Deadline: 2026, June 25

Convenors

• Flore Muguet (EPHE-GSRL)
• Sára Eszter Heidl (Université de Vienne)