Abstract for edited series:

Esoteric practices are flourishing in contemporary societies, which can be labeled as spiritual, magical, shamanic, New Age, or folk religious, depending on the theoretical perspective. This series will trace them from an interdisciplinary and global perspective, focusing on the ways in which these esoteric practices reshape and revitalize older practices in new contexts among new publics, creating new practices by embracing new technologies that extend their influence globally and avoid stigmatization or persecution, and use social media in worldwide activist projects. In short, this series addresses the connection between esoteric practices and political forces, legal frameworks, governmental projects, environmental concerns, cultural and social processes, economic and consumer opportunities, and embodied, sensorial, and artistic aspects of experience. The series adopts a combined diachronic and synchronic approach to contemporary esoteric practices, emphasizing their pragmatic goals and analysing their comparative aspects. In this way, this series promotes a discussion of the alternative rationales underlying the various forms of esoteric practices, with the aim of foregrounding the analytical frameworks underlying their study.