TY - JOUR
T1 - Pilgrimage to Fátima and Santiago after COVID
T2 - Dis/connection in the post-digital age
AU - Jorge, Ana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - This paper reports on a practice-centered study focusing on pilgrimage to explore mobile and digital media dis/connectivity in the context of a particular configuration of personal mobility. Pilgrimage is a practice bringing together people motivated by religion, tourism, leisure, or self-development, in what have been termed “post-secular” forms of pilgrimage and tourism. In 2020 and 2021, restrictions on individual mobility were imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This exploratory study consisted of interviews with 13 pilgrims in Portugal, who went on pilgrimage to Fátima or Santiago de Compostela in 2021. We argue that dis/connection by pilgrims is evidence of a post-digital moment. Our analysis shows how pilgrims maintain an ambivalent relationship with mobile media in light of this experience which limits their access to habitual devices, people, and digital services, while opening up for the use of others that facilitate the mobility and the spiritual, affective, and sensorial experience as a pilgrim. However, digital and mobile media are deeply entangled in pilgrims’ relationships with space, time, and others—and thus disconnection is partial and transitional. Moreover, dis/connection is embodied in pilgriming—for example, in how they choose the mobile media considering the weight and energy, and place it on the body, at the same time that mobile media can also afford disembodiment to the experience of pilgrimage—by alleviating the physical pain of walking, for example. Pilgrims also use the media in ways that blur the distinctions between digital and non-digital in the ways they invest meanings in their practices.
AB - This paper reports on a practice-centered study focusing on pilgrimage to explore mobile and digital media dis/connectivity in the context of a particular configuration of personal mobility. Pilgrimage is a practice bringing together people motivated by religion, tourism, leisure, or self-development, in what have been termed “post-secular” forms of pilgrimage and tourism. In 2020 and 2021, restrictions on individual mobility were imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This exploratory study consisted of interviews with 13 pilgrims in Portugal, who went on pilgrimage to Fátima or Santiago de Compostela in 2021. We argue that dis/connection by pilgrims is evidence of a post-digital moment. Our analysis shows how pilgrims maintain an ambivalent relationship with mobile media in light of this experience which limits their access to habitual devices, people, and digital services, while opening up for the use of others that facilitate the mobility and the spiritual, affective, and sensorial experience as a pilgrim. However, digital and mobile media are deeply entangled in pilgrims’ relationships with space, time, and others—and thus disconnection is partial and transitional. Moreover, dis/connection is embodied in pilgriming—for example, in how they choose the mobile media considering the weight and energy, and place it on the body, at the same time that mobile media can also afford disembodiment to the experience of pilgrimage—by alleviating the physical pain of walking, for example. Pilgrims also use the media in ways that blur the distinctions between digital and non-digital in the ways they invest meanings in their practices.
KW - COVID-19
KW - disconnection
KW - mobility
KW - pilgrimage
KW - smartphones
KW - spirituality
KW - tourism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146574665&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20501579221151041
DO - 10.1177/20501579221151041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146574665
SN - 2050-1579
VL - 11
SP - 549
EP - 565
JO - Mobile Media and Communication
JF - Mobile Media and Communication
IS - 3
ER -