The scholar-practitioner of yoga in the western academy
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Singleton, Mark; Larios, Borayin:: ::

doi:10.4324/9781351050753-5

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…When I started the research in November 2017, I was a full-fledged member of the Mooji community: I lived in the ashram, participated in its everyday activities as everybody else there, and helped with the organization of retreats (largely preparing the site, welcoming guests, and doing simultaneous interpretations of Mooji’s teachings from English to Italianuring atsangs ). 3 Because of this, I acknowledged and relied on my positioning in the field as a ‘scholar-practitioner’ (Newcombe, 2009; Singleton and Byrne, 2008; Singleton and Larios, 2021), agreeing with Salmenniemi et al, (2020: 6) that ‘[w]hile emotional detachment and absence of the researcher’s body and affect have often been adopted in pursuit of objectivity, the embodied researcher experiences a different landscape for analytical insight ’. My insider status, rather than being a hindrance to research objectivity, proved instrumental in exploring the social life of prayer, where heightened emotional energy, coordinated actions, group focus, exclusivity, and shared symbolic representations are mobilized in embodied forms of social conduct.…”

Section: Methodological Remarks: From Reflexive Sociology To Discours...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement

Placido

2023

Social Compass

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In this article, I contribute to the development of the sociology of prayer focusing on the practice of bhaktiyoga, or yoga of devotion, within the largely influential, although substantially understudied, Mooji’s neo-Guru movement. Methodologically, I rely on the tools of reflexive sociology, autoethnography, and discourse analysis while theoretically I advance a preliminary theorization of praying interaction rituals through a coupled reading of Mauss’ early insights, Randal Collins’ Interaction Ritual Chain Theory (IRC), and the concept of spiritual capital. The article conceptualizes collective prayer as an interaction ritual chain through which the collective identity of the community is continuously reconstituted around shared rituals, and which is in turn aimed at the acquisition of spiritual capital, the most valued type of capital within Mooji’s community of devotees. Within this framework, prayer becomes essential also in the process of becoming a ‘good devotee’.

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Section: Methodological Remarks: From Reflexive Sociology To Discours...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement

Placido

2023

Social Compass

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“…Before moving to Monte Sahaja, I worked as a yoga instructor for about two years in several centers in Genoa, Italy (as has been argued elsewhere, "In Italy, although data on the number of practitioners are unreliable, it is possible to see a gradual increase in interest, with about 2 million practitioners (30 percent of whom are men), 20,000 centers throughout the country (especially in the center-north, with an increase of more than 100% since 2010) and a generated income of nearly 200 million euros" (Yoga: trend e numeri di un fenomeno in crescita-Manageritalia, accessed 21 February 2023 [12] (p. 7)), my hometown, and I had experimented with different styles of yoga for several years before that. These biographical elements are relevant since I am myself a "scholar-practitioner", as are most scholars currently studying modern forms of yoga [5][6][7].…”

Section: Significant Turning Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The disciplines of "yoga studies" and the social scientific study of religion (e.g., the sociology of religion and religious studies) are ideal/typical examples of how scholars relate to their objects of study while simultaneously being members or practitioners of specific yoga groups and/or other religious and spiritual communities. In the former discipline, thorough discussions of scholars' engagement in the field are generally neglected, despite the fact that it is almost entirely composed by "scholar-practitioners" [5][6][7]; the latter is similarly characterized by scholars' personal involvement in the religious traditions they discuss [8][9][10], often times with little or no acknowledgement of this important methodological and ethical facet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Scholar–Practitioners”, Reflexivity and the Illusio of the Field: Ethnography, Yoga Studies and the Social Scientific Study of Religion

Di Placido

2023

Societies

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This article dialogues with “yoga studies” and the social scientific study of religion (e.g., the sociology of religion and religious studies), arguing that both substantially neglect a thorough discussion of scholars’ engagement in the field despite being largely composed by “scholar–practitioners”. This is problematic from a methodological point of view as well as from an ethical perspective. Moving in the interstices between biographical reflections, critical social theory and methodological notes on embodied ethnographic research, I self-reflexively discuss my “shifting positionality” from devoted yoga practitioner to critical scholar, mapping the most significant turning points that I encountered during my research on the pedagogies of modern forms of yoga (2017–current). In so doing, I also discuss my overall positioning, participation and ethical reflections in relation to the main object of inquiry of my research. From this, I posit that the positions of scholar and practitioner are, at least in some cases, incommensurable, while the scholar–practitioner may also foster a unique way of knowing based on reflexivity as a living engagement and on the linkages between theory and practice from which there is much to gain.

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“…Within yoga studies, Singleton and Larios [35] show the value of examining the large number of scholar-practitioners:…”

Section: The Scholar-practitioner In Education Sport and Physical Cul...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“….] It can help us to reflect on what constitutes scholarship and what does not, insofar as it is seen to lie beyond the bounds of academic orthopraxis [35] (p. 37).…”

Section: The Scholar-practitioner In Education Sport and Physical Cul...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Typology of Martial Arts Scholar–Practitioners: Types, Transitions, and Tensions in Capoeira

Islas,

Jennings

2023

Societies

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Martial arts are concerned with continuous technical practice and refinement over a lifetime, while scholarship is ordinarily undertaken by active learners and experienced (occasionally veteran) practitioners. These martial arts scholar–practitioners tend to be positioned according to specific types, from a more distant (and sometimes critical) scholar with less combat acumen to an instructor keen to read and engage in collaborative research. This article introduces a typology of ten martial arts scholar–practitioner types: (1) Supportive Scholar; (2) Former Practitioner; (3) Practitioner on Stand-by; (4) Immersed Apprentice; (5) Budding Scholar–Practitioner; (6) Established Scholar–Practitioner; (7) Temporary Practitioner–Researcher; (8) Experimental Leader; (9) Inquisitive Teacher; and (10) Curious Practitioner. The types are examined using Capoeira, one of the most academically studied martial arts. Drawing on the Spannungsfeld—the “field of tension” between science and practice—we reveal the specific strengths and limitations of each type while illustrating the common transition between positions across a career or research project. Finally, we consider some practical solutions to mitigate the relative weaknesses and oversights of the specific types, including the ability to form teams of scholar–practitioners from different positions in academia and martial arts. We close with suggestions for empirical research to test and refine our methodological model.

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The scholar-practitioner of yoga in the western academy 1

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement

Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement

“Scholar–Practitioners”, Reflexivity and the Illusio of the Field: Ethnography, Yoga Studies and the Social Scientific Study of Religion

A Typology of Martial Arts Scholar–Practitioners: Types, Transitions, and Tensions in Capoeira

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