Special Issue on Organizations: Sacred, Spiritual and Profane

Special issue editors:
Jair Nascimento Santos, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, jairsantos@uneb.br
Eduardo Davel, Universidade Federal da Bahia, davel.eduardo@gmail.com
Carolyn Hunter, University of York, Carolyn.Hunter@york.ac.uk

Abstract deadline: December 31st, 2026
Manuscript deadline: June 30th, 2027

The sacred inhabits organisations in many ways. Expressions include cultural manifestations, religious festivities, rituals, ceremonies and daily practices. The sacred not only spurs us to investigate spiritual matters but also invites us to explore social, aesthetic, political, symbolic, and cultural dimensions.

Although the connections between the sacred and organisations have a long tradition, today's world and new theoretical approaches invite new perspectives, theorisations, insights, provocations, voices, artistic and cultural conversations. Classical authors such as Mircea Eliade (1992) define the sacred as a dimension of reality that reveals itself to individuals in an extraordinary and transcendental way, breaking with the order of everyday life. For Eliade, the sacred is not just religious, but an experience that reorganizes time and space, becoming a point of reference for the constitution of meaning in human life. "Sacred territory" translates into the experience of rituals that connect individuals to an ancestral tradition and a symbolic universe that goes beyond the profane.

According to Émile Durkheim (1912), the sacred is fundamental to social cohesion, since rituals and religious practices function as mechanisms that rebuild solidarity and unity among members of society, where the sacred provides a sense of belonging and collective identity. The sacred, in Durkheim, is what maintains social order by providing symbols that operate in the construction of social and collective norms.

Still in the field of social relations, the concept of numinous, developed by Rudolf Otto (1917), offers an important key to understanding the experience of the sacred. Otto describes the numinous as the sensation of "fascination and fear" before the divine, an emotional experience that goes beyond the rational.

However, the relationship between the sacred and the symbolic is not limited to an experience of faith and belonging. The sacred is also shaped as a field of dispute and resistance, as observed by Homi K. Bhabha (1994). Indeed, sacred spaces can be claimed as sites of resistance to the imposition of a colonial identity, which is particularly evident in Afro-Brazilian religions (Bhabha, 1994). The history of resistance of black men and women in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), for example, who, through religiosity, reaffirm their identity and their roots, is an expression of this use of the sacred as a territory of cultural and political affirmation.

Furthermore, we may perceive the sacred as a symbolic element that serves to affirm black identities and resistance (Prandi, 2004; Silva, 2010). Afro-Brazilian religious practices are not only spiritual rituals, but also forms of cultural subversion, where the sacred becomes a vehicle for emancipation and freedom. Resistance therefore occurs not only in rituals, but also in the creation of a "sacred territory" that opposes the dynamics of subordination and social discrimination. The sacred is undoubtedly also at the root of indigenous resistance and struggle. For example, Bahia, Brazil is the place where Europeans arrived in South America, and today the indigenous peoples offer a wisdom of ties to the land and to nature that can teach us to ‘delay the end of the world’, to resist the desert and the devastation wrought by technocapitalism (Krenak, 2020). These indigenous wisdoms and cosmogonies are manifold, their Andean versions of the Pachamama and Buen vivir are better known in Europe.

On the other hand, the concept of ritual and symbolism, proposed by Victor Turner (1969), highlights the importance of the sacred in the organization of social groups. Turner, when studying societies and their ritual practices, highlights that rites of passage are moments of transition and transformation that allow individuals to reconfigure their identities and their positions in society. The coexistence between the sacred and the symbolic is also reflected in the way many cities articulate social relations and the role of religious institutions as builders of collectivities, as well as vibrant events such as carnivals, where sacred, order and organization, for a while, are suspended, subverted, and then reaffirmed, but can also be moved (Bakthin, 1984); I.e. where ritual, dance and music can act as a transformative performance (Schechner, 1995).

The sacred leads popular festivals and traditional religions but appears also in other types of organizations. Roberto DaMatta (1991), and Peter Case, Heather Hӧpfl and Hugo Letiche (2012) highlight how symbolism and the sacred within organisations explain cohesion, motivation and a sense of belonging among individuals. In a context of growing appreciation of religious and cultural diversity, and where motivation can often only act as a surrogate of meaning (Sievers, 1993), organizations have to reinvent the way they deal with religious issues and bring together fervour and enthusiasm, commitment and meaning to generate alternative ways of organizing.

This call encourages manuscripts which seeks out, engage, converse and if needed challenge the sacred. Contributors may find inspiration in the following themes:

• Sacred space and / or place and / or thresholds

• Experiences and /or aesthetics and / or emotionality of the sacred

• Rituals and rites of passage

• Affective attunement with the sacred

• Subjectivity / the soul

• Spirituality

• Critiques of the sacred, including post-colonial and decolonial perspectives

• Sacred metaphors in the organisation

• The sacred and the constitution of organisations and communities

• The sacred as political justification and activism or conservatism

• What is unsacred, the profane and profanations?

This special issue is closely linked to the SCOS Conference in Salvador (21-23 July 2026). Authors of papers presented at the Conference are encouraged to submit their work to this Special Issue, although it is not a requirement.

Submission Instructions

Submission details:

We welcome submissions written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Scholars are invited to submit a 1000-word abstract. Accepted abstracts will then be invited to submit a full manuscript. Acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee inclusion in the special issue and full manuscripts will undergo a blind review process. Accepted manuscripts may be published ‘online first’ before the final publication date for the special issue.

Please submit the special issue title when submitting your paper to ScholarOne.

References

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. O local da cultura. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
Case, Peter, Hӧpfl, Heather and Letiche, Hugo. 2012. Beliefs and organizations, New York: MacMillan.
Durkheim, Émile. 1912. As formas elementares da vida religiosa. São Paulo: Martin Fontes.
Eliade, Mircea. 1992. O sagrado e o profano. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.
Krenak, Ailton. 2020. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World, Toronto: House of Anansi Press.
Matta, Roberto Da. 1991. Carnavais, malandros e heróis. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.
Otto, Rudolf. 1917. O sagrado. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.
Prandi, Reginaldo. 2004. Encantaria brasileira: o livro dos mestres, caboclos e encantados. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Schechner, Richard. 1995. ‘The street is the stage.’ In R. Schechner (Ed.), The Future of rituals, pp. 45-92. London, Routledge.
Sievers, Burkard. 1993. "I. Motivation as a Surrogate for Meaning". Work, Death, and Life Itself: Essays on Management and Organization, , pp. 1-46 Berlin, De Gruyter.
Silva, Vagner Gonçalves da. 2010. Orixás da metrópole. São Paulo: EdUSP.
Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.