Activism, Performance, and Spiritual Ritual
Department
Leadership, Management & Business
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
This chapter seeks to build a theoretical framework for embodied social change as an integrative practice of grassroots activism, public performance, and spiritual ritual, in which the relationship between self, community, performer, observer, and existential meaning are deeply intertwined.
The chapter includes an autoethnographic account of the author’s engagement in embodied social change in Huánuco, Peru, through her work with local human rights activists responding to issues of child sexual abuse. Through this example, embodied social change is presented as a non-dualistic and multi-layered approach that invites individuals and communities into a place of healing and reconciliation amidst diverse spiritual understandings, while simultaneously challenging oppressive and colonizing social structures. The aim of the discussion is to destabilize any assumed “newness” to embodied social change and instead firmly acknowledge the already existing landscapes of embodied spirituality and social change within Indigenous and non-Western leadership models. As these embodied approaches emerge within Western academic and therapeutic fields, there is opportunity for meaningful cross-pollination between embodied and cognitive epistemologies, which together point to an evolving era of embodied spiritual leadership and social change.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003396741
Recommended Citation
Horan, L. (2023). Activism, Performance, and Spiritual Ritual. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003396741
Comments
Published as a chapter of: Raei, M., Guenther, S. K., & Berkley, L. A. (2025). Leadership at the spiritual edge : emerging and non-Western concepts of leadership and spirituality. Routledge.