Enchanting the Social: Rituals for Collective Life

In this one-day symposium, we will explore how rituals—broadly conceived—help produce, stabilise, and transform collective life. While some panels will examine explicitly ceremonial or spiritual practices, we are equally interested in the more ordinary, patterned repetitions through which social worlds are made. From habits of care to public performances, from activist repertoires to institutional routines, these practices shape how people imagine futures, sustain solidarities, and navigate political and ecological uncertainty. Through round-table discussions and moments of participatory practice, we aim to develop sociological reflections on how rituals—whether spectacular or mundane—organise social relations, generate affective bonds, and materialise forms of collective agency. By bringing together scholars who study everyday social processes with those examining more overtly symbolic or aesthetic forms of ritual, the event opens space to consider how repetition, performance, and shared practice give political life its texture. We hope this conversation will connect critical sociology with practitioners and thinkers experimenting with new ways of remaking social and ecological relations. 

Organisers: Giulia Carabelli and Jamie Matthews.

When: 22 April 2026.

Where: Queen Mary University of London, Queens Building, Colette Bowe Room, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS 

Register form available soon. 

Programme (TBC):

10:00 - 10:30            Arrival and coffee

10:45 - 11:00            Opening Remarks 

11:00 - 12:30            Roundtable 1 - Magic, Rituals, and the Mystical

Chair: Giulia Carabelli (QMUL) 

Speakers: Çiçek Ilengiz (Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin), Jabulani Shaba (Groningen), Delfi Nieto-Isabel (QMUL), Zoë de Luca Legge (Ecotransfeminist Curator)

12:30 - 13:30            Lunch

13:30 - 15:00            Roundtable 2 - Performing Society - Rituals of Social Life

Chair: Jamie Matthews (QMUL)

Speakers: Vikki Bell (Goldsmiths), Dawn Lyon (Kent), Liz McDonnell (Sussex), Alex Rhys-Taylor (Goldsmiths)

15:00 - 15:15           Break

15:15 - 16:45           Presentation/Performance by Plastique Fantastique - Rituals, Sigil Magic, and Storytelling

16:45 - 17:00            Concluding thoughts