Conspirituality in COVID-19 Times

A Mixed-method Study of Anti-vaccine Movements in Spain

Authors

  • Mar Griera Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Jordi Morales i Gras Independent researcher
  • Anna Clot-Garrell University of Barcelona
  • Rafael Cazarín Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.22390

Keywords:

conspirituality, Spain, Spirituality, Vaccination, Anti-vaxx

Abstract

This article focuses on the development of COVID-19 anti-vaccination movements in Spain and explores their relationship with the phenomenon of conspirituality. By using a mixed-methods approach combining big data analysis with small ethnographic data analysis, we examine how conspiracy theories and spiritual ideas circulate, merge and crystallize in particular practices and encounters in Spain. The big data analysis of Twitter conversations reveals the centrality and hypervisibility of far-right populist influencers, and the predominance of classic conspiracy views over spiritual ones in anti-vax discourses. However, ethnographic observations and the analysis of digital ethnographic data of other social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube and Telegram) show the emergence and growth of a network of actors merging spiritual messages, alternative visions on health and healing, anti-vax views and conspiracy theories in different ways and degrees. These are the conspiritual assemblages, which are smaller and more local in their scale and impact but still significant in sociological terms.

Author Biographies

  • Mar Griera, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

    Dr Mar Griera is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the director of the research group ISOR on sociology of religion. Her main research expertise lies at the intersection of sociology of religion, cultural sociology and political science.

  • Jordi Morales i Gras, Independent researcher

    Dr Jordi Morales i Gras is an independent researcher, partner and founder of the Big Data sociological analysis consultancy, Network Outsight. He also collaborates with the Cámara Bilbao University Business School, the UPV/EHU, the UOC, and the UdG. His main research interests are social science methodology, artificial intelligence, and computational methods.

  • Anna Clot-Garrell, University of Barcelona

    Dr Anna Clot-Garrell is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society (CECUPS), Department of Sociology, Universitat de Barcelona. Her research revolves around cultural sociology, social theory, sociology of religion and environmental sociology.

  • Rafael Cazarín, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

    Dr Rafael Cazarín is a postdoctoral fellow at the ISOR Research in Sociology of Religion, Department of Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona. His research focuses on the emerging ways through which social actors are blurring the lines between religious and secular worldviews in the fields of gender, sexuality, and diversity policies.

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Published

2022-07-22

Issue

Vol. 35 No. 2 (2022): Special Issue: (Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19

Section

Articles

License

Equinox Publishing Ltd.

How to Cite

Griera, M., Morales i Gras, J., Clot-Garrell, A., & Cazarín, R. (2022). Conspirituality in COVID-19 Times: A Mixed-method Study of Anti-vaccine Movements in Spain. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 35(2), 192-217. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.22390