Publications

Articles & Book Chapters (* equal authorship)

Johnston, Erin F. Forthcoming. “Yoga as a Way of Life: Authenticity through Identity Management,” in Patrick Williams and Kaylan Schwarz (eds), Studies on the Social Construction of Identity and Authenticity. Routledge.

Abstract: “Can anyone who practices yoga claim the identity of a ‘yogi,’ or does this title imply specific criteria such as physical proficiency, philosophical understanding, or spiritual enlightenment? Drawing on 15-months of participant observation and interviews with both teachers and students at an Integral Yoga studio in the New York metropolitan area, this chapter describes the attributes and characteristics that mark identity authenticity (Williams 2019) for members of this community. It argues that Integral Yoga practitioners associate authenticity with a particular style of identity management (Brekhus 2003), one that is high in duration (e.g. always “turned on,” across time and context) and personal importance (e.g. central to the person’s overall sense of self), but low in both density (e.g. enacted at low volume or intensity) and dominance (e.g. it did not eclipse other identities or social roles. This chapter also reveals how Integral Yoga practitioners use this style of identity management to draw symbolic boundaries between themselves and other, culturally-salient types of yoga practitioners.”

DeGloma, Thomas and Erin F. Johnston.* (In Press). “Cognitive Migrations: Towards a Cultural & Cognitive Sociology of Personal Transformation,” in Brekhus, Wayne and Gabe Ignatow (eds) Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology. Oxford University Press.

Abstract: “This chapter explores the ways individuals account for cognitive migrations—significant changes of mind and consciousness that are often expressed as powerful discoveries, transformative experiences, and newly embraced worldviews. It outlines three ideal typical forms of cognitive migration: awakenings, self-actualizations, and ongoing quests. Building on prior approaches to such personal transformations, it develops the notion of cognitive migration to argue the following set of interrelated points. First, cognitive migrations take autobiographical form, which is to say they manifest as the narrative identity work of individuals who undergo them. Second, such narrative identity work provides a reflexive foundation for an individual’s understanding of self and identity in relation to other possible selves and identities—for seeing oneself as a relationally situated character. Third, individuals who articulate cognitive migrations use the plot structure and cultural coding at the root of their narratives to express their allegiance to a new sociomental community. They thereby take on new cognitive norms and identity-defining conventions while rejecting potential alternatives, locating themselves within a broader sociomental field. The spatial metaphor of cognitive migrations draws explicit attention to the broader sociomental field in which such radical changes of mind take place. Finally, such narrative identity work links self-understandings to the often-contested meanings of broadly relevant issues, events, and experiences; when individuals account for their cognitive migrations, they also advance claims that reach well-beyond their personal lives.”

Johnston, Erin F. 2017. “Failing to Learn, or Learning to Fail? Accounting for Shortcomings in the Acquisition of Spiritual Disciplines.” Qualitative Sociology. 40(3): 353-372.

Abstract: “Failures abound in religious and spiritual life: Religious prophecies can fail to come to fruition, prayers sometimes go unanswered, and adherents are often unable to feel God’s presence. Experiences of perceived failure and personal shortcoming — especially when frequent or salient — can erode religious commitment. How then can we account for individuals’ persistence in the face of these experiences? Drawing on fieldwork in two organizations dedicated to the transmission of personal spiritual disciplines — an Integral Yoga studio and a Catholic prayer house — I find that texts and teachers at both sites promote a similar interpretive style related to experiences of shortcoming, one which translates perceived failures into constitutive features of practice. In doing so, this authoritative discourse normalizes, universalizes, and even valorizes the most common sources of frustration and anxiety for practitioners. More, I find that this interpretive style is tied to both identity and progress: The enactment of these socially-sanctioned scripts becomes a way to project oneself and to identify others as committed and authentic practitioners. More broadly, this research draws attention to the ubiquity of failure in cultural systems, and to the challenges posed by these events. Drawing on insights from social psychology and cultural sociology, it reveals the importance of organizations, social interaction, and meaning-making in accounting for persistence.”

Johnston, Erin F. 2016. “The Enlightened Self: Identity and Aspiration in Two Communities of Practice.” Religions. 7(7): 92.

Abstract: “Existing research on religious identity, especially from a narrative perspective, has tended to focus either on accounts of the past (especially occasions of religious change) or on conceptions of religious identity in the present. Religious communities, however, not only provide a sense of identity and belonging in the present—as a “Catholic” or “Buddhist,” for example—they also promote a particular vision of the religious ideal: The way of being-in-the-world that all adherents are (or ought to be) striving to achieve. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, this paper describes and analyzes the identity and lifestyle goals of participants in two communities of practice: An Integral Yoga studio and a Catholic prayer house. I find that the ideal spiritual self in both communities is defined by three key characteristics: A sacred gaze, a simultaneous sense of presence and detachment, and a holistic style of identity management. I suggest that in constructing and transmitting a shared vision of the “enlightened self,” these organizations offer practitioners a highly desirable but ever-elusive aspirational identity. This study calls attention to religious organizations as important suppliers of possible identities—the identities, either desired and feared, we think we could or might become in the future—and reveals the situated and contextual nature of adherents’ religious aspirations.”

Johnston, Erin F. 2017. “Anticipating the Future: The Growth of Practice-Oriented Spiritualties,” in Eugene V. Gallagher (ed), Visioning New and Minority Religions: Projecting the Future. Ashgate. (Translation in progress)

Summary: Within the sociology of religion, the secularization thesis (as defined by religious decline) has increasingly been losing favor. Instead, recent work has sought to highlight the many qualitative changes religion and religious organizations have and continue to undergo. In this chapter, I address one major shift in the contemporary religious landscape: the development of communities of practice which aim to transmit what Robert Wuthnow has called a “practice-oriented spirituality.”  For many contemporary individuals who are less attached to or do not believe in the central tenets of any particular religious doctrine, spiritual practices – as non-creedal and this-worldly – may be an ideal form of cultural adaptation. Practice-oriented spirituality offers practitioners the benefits of both dwelling and seeking forms of religiosity: a spiritual home and a spiritual journey. Indeed disciplined forms of spiritual practice – from meditation and yoga to contemplative prayer and examen – are increasingly found in both religious and secular spaces across the U.S. Drawing on data from my fieldwork in two communities of practice – an Integral Yoga Institute and a Catholic prayer house – I argue that these communities transmit an understanding of self that is particularly appealing to individuals experiencing the anxieties, existential dilemmas, and alienations of the late-modern world.

Johnston, Erin F. 2013. “‘I was Always this Way…’: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion.” Sociological Forum. 28(3): 549-573.

Abstract: “This article is concerned with identifying, comparing, and accounting for the principal rhetorical conventions within Pagan practitioners’ narratives of conversion. Applying key insights from studies on narrative identity and drawing on 15 months of fieldwork and 25 in‐depth interviews with Pagan practitioners, I first outline formal similarities in the content of participants’ narratives, arguing that these narrative conventions together constitute an ideal typical conversion narrative: what I call the rhetoric of continuity. This narrative form depicts the process of conversion as a rediscovery or uncovering of a temporally continuous and essentialized Pagan self. I suggest that while all conversions involve both change and continuity, adherents of different faith traditions vary in the degree to which they stress self‐transformation and/or self‐continuity. I then argue that the rhetoric of continuity reflects and reinforces practitioners’: (1) perspective on the locus and nature of the authentic self; (2) claims to legitimacy and social acceptance; and (3) understanding of the nature of religious truth.”

Research Reports

Johnston, Erin F. 2017. “Artists in Motion: A Survey of Recent Funding for Artistic Exchange, 2009-2015.” NYU Brademas Center.

Summary: “This report, commissioned by the John Brademas Center of New York University, seeks to provide a broad picture of private sector funding and foundation activity in support of international artistic and cultural exchange. As a potential instrument of public diplomacy and means for fostering greater cross-cultural understanding among citizens, artistic exchange is of particular importance in the current historical moment. Yet, recent research by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation suggests that both public and private grantmaking in this field declined substantially after the turn of the 21st century (Ayers 2010).

Broadly, the research found that grantmakers were divesting from programs and projects in support of international cultural exchange between 2003 and 2008. The report aimed not only to describe the state of funding in the field for artistic and cultural exchange, but also to reinvigorate foundation activity in this area by articulating its value and clearly depicting contemporary gaps in support. The current report provides an update to Robert Sterling Clark Foundation’s (RSF) important work.”

Lena, Jennifer C. and Erin F. Johnston.* 2015. “US Cultural Engagement with Global Muslim Communities: Contours and Connections in an Emerging Field.” Grantmakers in the Arts Reader. Vol. 26 (1): 9-13.

Summary: In this report, we index projects in the field of Muslim art and analyze the connections between them.