The Political Economy of Pilgrimage: Emic/Etic Aspects of the Camino

Pilgrimage’s multidimensional character has called the attention of researchers from all social sciences and has been analyzed through many different lenses. In this paper I will analyze the political economy of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, known as the Camino, exploring how it has affected and has been affected by local, regional, national and supranational policies designed by political and ecclesiastical institutions. More precisely, I will analyze (i) the specific ad-hoc organizations, associations and policies directly involved with the Camino that have been developed at the local level of Burgos since 1993, when the Camino was recovered; (ii) how these organizations and policies shape the Camino (hostel network, religious infrastructures) and the town’s public space (un/intended outcomes).

The analysis of the emic/etic aspects of the Camino and how the meanings ascribed to it are manifested in practice (policies, associations, and the pilgrimage itself) raises an interesting question regarding the identification of these meanings with specific social actors: while pilgrims have been always regarded as emic actors par-excellence, I will propose to look at their meanings (and the way in which they translate to action) also from an etic point of view, as participant-observers.

The paper is based on interviews with pilgrims passing through Burgos and with representatives of the local and regional political and ecclesiastical institutions. The theoretical framework is inspired in the scholarly research in the field of pilgrimage (Eade, Sallnow, Turner) and in the field of politics of place and space (Hannerz, Lefebvre, Sassen).