IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sdo/regaec/v30y2021i3_13.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The power of place-makers and merchants: Papal and Marian items in the political economy of pilgrimage

Author

Listed:
  • Barbato, Mariano

Abstract

Based on two field studies on the micro level of items which place-makers and merchants display at holy sites, an argument about the supply side of the political economy of pilgrimage is proposed. Place-makers and merchants rely on the established pilgrims’ traditions but differ concerning innovations. Place-makers are the principals of the sites and invest in innovations in order to secure the site’s long-term performance. Merchants rely on short-term purchase decisions of the pilgrims. They prefer tried and tested products and look for novelties which fits in the pattern of success. While the resilience of placemakers demonstrate the power of the supply side, the cautiousness of the merchants hints to its limits. Rome during Francis’ Jubilee of Mercy and the Bavarian Marian shrine Altötting in the years after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI are the case studies to illustrate these claims in the perspective of Marian and papal pilgrimage.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbato, Mariano, 2021. "The power of place-makers and merchants: Papal and Marian items in the political economy of pilgrimage," Revista Galega de Economía, University of Santiago de Compostela. Faculty of Economics and Business., vol. 30(3), pages 1-16.
  • Handle: RePEc:sdo:regaec:v:30:y:2021:i:3_13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.usc.gal/index.php/rge/article/view/7569
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pilgrimage; Pope; Marian Devotion; Jubilee of Mercy; Altötting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sdo:regaec:v:30:y:2021:i:3_13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marisa Chas-Amil (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feusces.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.