Location
Monserrat
Start Date
26-6-2026 12:30 PM
End Date
26-6-2026 2:00 PM
Description
Modern cruise tourism presents a theoretical paradox for the Mediterranean basin. Every year, millions of passengers sail along maritime routes that follow ancient pilgrimage routes. They head towards Rome, the Holy Land, and the coastal approaches to Lourdes, Santiago, and Montserrat. All this takes place within one of the most operationally regulated and commercially standardised forms of mass tourism. Even within this structural rigidity, travellers regularly report profound personal transformation, spiritual encounters, and meaning-making that are strikingly reminiscent of traditional pilgrimage narratives (Collins-Kreiner, 2010; Olsen & Timothy, 2006). This discrepancy between the system's design and the individual's experience poses a fundamental challenge for further research into pilgrimage tourism.
Predominant binary classifications, such as authentic versus commodified, sacred versus secular, and traditional versus modern, struggle to represent the lived reality of travellers on cruise ships. As a result, they create deeply personal meanings within openly commercial structures (Stausberg, 2011). A four-hour shore excursion to the Montserrat Abbey can become either "just a stop" or a "life-changing spiritual encounter." The trip's itinerary has a secondary role, as the experience depends on the passenger's inner state. This observation requires a theoretical framework that can simultaneously explain systemic constraints and individual tour operator, as well as operational standardisation and experiential uniqueness.
This extended abstract proposes an autopoietic systems theory derived from the biological cybernetics of Maturana and Varela (1980). In combination with the systems thinking methodology using causal loop diagrams (CLDs), this builds a theoretical and analytical framework capable of resolving this paradox by reconceptualising the role of passengers on cruise ships. These are operationally closed but structurally coupled systems that cause feedback loops. Through these, the pilgrimage's meaning is reflected and can transcend the binary opposition of commodification versus authenticity. Therefore, we examine pilgrimage as a self-organising phenomenon.
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Included in
J3) The Autopoiesis of Pilgrimage Tourism: How Cruise Passengers Self-Organise Transformational Meaning in Mass Tourism
Monserrat
Modern cruise tourism presents a theoretical paradox for the Mediterranean basin. Every year, millions of passengers sail along maritime routes that follow ancient pilgrimage routes. They head towards Rome, the Holy Land, and the coastal approaches to Lourdes, Santiago, and Montserrat. All this takes place within one of the most operationally regulated and commercially standardised forms of mass tourism. Even within this structural rigidity, travellers regularly report profound personal transformation, spiritual encounters, and meaning-making that are strikingly reminiscent of traditional pilgrimage narratives (Collins-Kreiner, 2010; Olsen & Timothy, 2006). This discrepancy between the system's design and the individual's experience poses a fundamental challenge for further research into pilgrimage tourism.
Predominant binary classifications, such as authentic versus commodified, sacred versus secular, and traditional versus modern, struggle to represent the lived reality of travellers on cruise ships. As a result, they create deeply personal meanings within openly commercial structures (Stausberg, 2011). A four-hour shore excursion to the Montserrat Abbey can become either "just a stop" or a "life-changing spiritual encounter." The trip's itinerary has a secondary role, as the experience depends on the passenger's inner state. This observation requires a theoretical framework that can simultaneously explain systemic constraints and individual tour operator, as well as operational standardisation and experiential uniqueness.
This extended abstract proposes an autopoietic systems theory derived from the biological cybernetics of Maturana and Varela (1980). In combination with the systems thinking methodology using causal loop diagrams (CLDs), this builds a theoretical and analytical framework capable of resolving this paradox by reconceptualising the role of passengers on cruise ships. These are operationally closed but structurally coupled systems that cause feedback loops. Through these, the pilgrimage's meaning is reflected and can transcend the binary opposition of commodification versus authenticity. Therefore, we examine pilgrimage as a self-organising phenomenon.