Salvador/Bahia/Brazil - 14th to 16th July 2026
Universidade Salvador – UNIFACS (Campus Tancredo Neves – CTN)
The Sacred
The sacred inhabits organisations in many ways, and we invite to discuss them in and from Salvador, a city 476 years old, the first capital of Brazil and one of the largest centers of religiosity in the country. Salvador is also a territory of intense manifestation of the sacred and the symbolic. With a cultural heritage deeply marked by the coexistence and resistance of religions of African origin, popular Catholicism and religious syncretism, Salvador presents itself as an emblematic space for the study of sacred practices, where the symbolic is revealed in cultural manifestations, religious festivities, rituals and daily practices. The sacred, as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, offers a fruitful field of research that encompasses not only the spiritual, but also social, political and cultural dimensions.
Although the connections between the sacred and organisations have a long tradition, today's world and new theoretical approaches invite to 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. In Salvador, this vision of a "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. The city of Salvador, with its rich religious diversity, can be seen as a microcosm where different manifestations of faith intertwine to form a plural but at the same time cohesive social fabric, 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 configured as a field of dispute and resistance, as observed by Homi K. Bhabha (1994). In his postcolonial reflections, Bhabha analyzes how sacred spaces can be claimed as sites of resistance to the imposition of a colonial identity, which is particularly evident in Afro-Brazilian religions. The history of resistance of black men and women in Salvador, 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.
In the same vein, authors such as Reginaldo Prandi (2004) and Vagner Gonçalves da Silva (2010) point out that the sacred, as a symbolic element, serves to affirm black identities and resistance. 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 in Brazil. Bahia 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, defended 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 the city articulates social relations and the role of religious institutions as builders of collectivities. Salvador is also the scene of one of the world's largest and most vibrant 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).
In addition to its presence in popular festivals and traditional religions, the sacred also infiltrates organizations and the corporate environment. In contemporary studies on organizations, such as those carried out by Roberto DaMatta (1991), or Peter case, Heather Hôpfl and Hugo Letiche (2012), it is observed how companies and other institutions can incorporate elements of the symbolic and the sacred to create 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 research 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 of the sacred
Rituals and rites of passage
Affective attunements with the sacred
Subjectivity / the soul
Spirituality
Post-colonial perspectives or critiques of the sacred
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
Critiques of the sacred
A special issue of Culture and Organization on the theme of the sacred will follow, and some contributions might be welcome in the Journal of Management Spiritual organization.
Open stream and workshops
SCOS 2026 will also have an open stream, allowing for the presentation of papers of more general interest to the SCOS community. In addition, we are open to suggestions for workshops or similar events in line with the proposed theme. Outlines of workshops should be the same length as a paper abstract and should give an indication of the resources needed, the number of participants, the time required, the approach to be taken and the session’s objectives. Please identify “open stream” or “workshop” on your abstract, as appropriate.
Submission of abstracts
Abstracts of no more than 500 words, in word or pdf-format, should be submitted as email attachments by jair.santos@ulife.com.br to: Monday, February 23, 2026. You may also direct any queries to this address. The main organizers are Jair Nascimento Santos (UNIFACS) and Armindo Teodósio, (PUC-MG) and the conference will be hosted by Universidade Salvador - UNIFACS.
References
BAKHTIN, Mikhail, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
BHABHA, Homi K. O local da cultura. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 1994.
CASE, Peter, HŐPFL, Heather and LETICHE, Hugo, Beliefs and organizations, New York: Mac Millan, 2012.
DURKHEIM, Émile. As formas elementares da vida religiosa. São Paulo: Martin Fontes, 1912.
ELIADE, Mircea. O sagrado e o profano. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1992.
KRENAK, Ailton, Ideas to Postpone the End of the World, Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2020.
MATTA, Roberto Da. Carnavais, malandros e heróis. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1991.
OTTO, Rudolf. O sagrado. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1917.
PRANDI, Reginaldo. Encantaria brasileira: o livro dos mestres, caboclos e encantados. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004.
SCHECHNER, Richard. The street is the stage. In R. Schechner (Ed.), The Future of rituals, Routledge, 1995, pp. 45-92.
SIEVERS, Burkard. "I. Motivation as a Surrogate for Meaning". Work, Death, and Life Itself: Essays on Management and Organization, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1993, pp. 1-46.
SILVA, Vagner Gonçalves da. Orixás da metrópole. São Paulo: EdUSP, 2010.
TURNER, Victor. The Ritual Process. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1969.