Everyday Mobilities: Constructing Geographies of Religion and Spirituality in Daily and Repeated Journeys and Activities

Wigley, Edward (2025). Everyday Mobilities: Constructing Geographies of Religion and Spirituality in Daily and Repeated Journeys and Activities. In: Kong, Lily; Woods, Orlando and Tse, Justin K.H. eds. Handbook of the Geographies of Religion. Springer International Handbooks of Human Geography ((IHGG)). Springer Cham, pp. 967–988.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64811-3_53

Abstract

From daily commutes that involve geographically situated prayer and meditation to the schedule of wudu ablutions and prayer inflected by travel and employment, mobilities and religion and spirituality are more entwined than is often recognized. The study of mobilities and the ways in which flows, circulations, and immobilities structure individual and collective experiences of place have become an important strand of geographical and social scientific thought. Likewise, it is important to account for these mobilities and the way in which they impact and structure individual geographies of religion and spirituality. This chapter brings together research conducted across 10 years with Christians, Muslims, and Buddhist Meditation center attendees to consider the ways in which the religious identity and spiritual lives of individuals are constructed and structured in the process of their everyday lives, and practices of their mobilities. This includes how the movement and circulation, bringing them into proximity with other people and places creates opportunities for increased practice or contemplation of their spiritual life but also the challenges they face as they maintain particular ideas or activities such as the obligations. Daily mobilities are found to be critical in constructing—and disrupting—the ongoing spiritual lives of participants, often enabling new meanings of their practices to be developed that also brings into consideration other aspects of gender, ethnicity, and religious identity.

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