«Människa, varför har Ni valt det här yrket?» Ledarskap och praktik i nya riter

Abstract

«Why on Earth have you chosen this profession?» New ritual practices and leadership

The paper offers some reflections on the use of ritual and tradition in contemporary Sweden. The social condition of modernity has radically changed the context of ritual and transformed traditional patterns and new rituals have emerged that respond to these contemporary societal structures. It presents some new practices, discusses different categories of new ritual mastery, and investigates the increasing demand from the participants for efficacy and personal meaning in rituals. Finally it raises the delicate question whether there are reasons, or even desirable, to maintain a critical stance to these features of modernity.