The way of saint james
a contemporary geographical analysis
pp. 709-732
in: Stanley , Stanley D. Brunn (eds), The changing world religion map, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
This chapter presents a geographical analysis of the Way of Saint James in several venues. Its contemporary dimension is favored, providing the basic keys to understanding the changes discussed, but certainly a focus is on the past. We begin with a theoretical review of the peregrination issue from a geographic perspective. Next a geopolitical interpretation of the rise and development of the Jacobean phenomenon in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period is proposed. We then turn to explain the contemporary revival of the Way of Saint James, conveyed through various geographical scales that have discursively used it. Five intersecting scales are: Spain as a nation-state construction; Galicia as national construction; devolved regions and nationalities that attained autonomy within the framework of a decentralized political system in Spain since the late 1970s; local governments; and the European Union. The next section deals with the contemporary spatial production of the Way. The final section is devoted to the interaction between landscape and the Way of Saint James, highlighting the critical contribution of books that give a prejudicial perspective to walkers/pilgrims before they experience the Camino. The conclusion systematizes the binomial tourism/pilgrimage nexus in the current Jacobean phenomenon and shows the enormous explanatory power of geography to address the Way of Saint James in its many contemporary facets.