The Globalization of an Interaction Ritual Chain: “Clapping for Carers” During the Conflict Against COVID-19

International audienceSociologists have long been interested in the theoretical possibility of a universal ritual. Despite a growing number of indicators of world society and globalization, there have not been attempts to observe and analyze the international reach of particular rituals. We propose an extension of the “interaction ritual chain” by theorizing how an interaction ritual might be created and diffused internationally. We look at the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created shared conditions of social distancing and emotional distress. We analyze a discontinuous chain of urban and national interaction rituals that focused attention on the efforts of healthcare workers fighting the virus. We count clapping and noise-making in 101 countries and 26 global cities. While we find similar ritual forms and international symbols of solidarity, there was also substantial evidence of conflict and particularism

Towards a Global Ritual: Diffusion of Culture in Unsettled Times

Can we speak of a society without rituals? Rituals create a group's identity by way of collective categories, emotion, and beliefs. The many extensions to the concept of the ritual often have focused on local and national contexts. Given that scholars of rituals tend to miss globalization, and those studying globalization tend to miss rituals, we have a less clear understanding of if and how increasing globalization produces global rituals, or vice versa. Using a global crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate new ritual forms which are globalized. One of the most recognized collective actions during the early months of lockdown involved people clapping for healthcare workers. Our thesis is that this phenomenon constituted a ritual starting locally with near global reach, made possible by the perception of menace of COVID-19, in addition to the performance’s form and meaning, and several channels of diffusion