The literature on ontological security has considerably improved our understanding of how crises, disruptions, and their perceptions lead to subjective insecurities or anxieties. In particular, it has illuminated how individuals cope with the insecurities of late modernity by searching for stabilizing anchors, such as routines and biographical continuity. While existing research on ontological security has largely examined narrative strategies and identity constructions, this article shifts the focus onto active, embodied, and situated practice. Based on a qualitative case study of the Schäferlauf – a biannual traditional festival in Bad Urach, Germany – we show how heritage practices can function as stabilizing anchors in times of crisis. Through qualitative fieldwork including interviews and photograph elicitation, we analyse how the festival enables individuals to anchor their identities through embodied and place-based practices, such as wearing traditional costumes and participating in preparations. These practices generate a sense of continuity in personal biographies, and reinforce social ties and place identity. This study provides new directions for research on festivals as sites of social and cultural stability and continuity, while also laying the groundwork for further research into ontological security as an embodied and situated practice.
A globalized world is for many a world devoid of certainty, of knowing what tomorrow holds. It is a world where many people feel intensified levels of insecurity as the life they once led is being contested and changed at the same time. Globalization challenges simple definitions of who we are and where we come from. (Kinnvall, 2004:742)
Drawing on Giddens' notion of ontological security (Giddens, 1991, 2008), Catarina Kinnvall (2004:744) argues that globalization has led to a loss of people's “protective cocoon of relational ties”, thereby making individuals and groups feel increasingly insecure. The literature on ontological security has contributed widely to improving our understanding of how crises, disruptions, and their perceptions lead to these insecurities or anxieties. More specifically, it has illuminated the ways in which “individuals can `cope' with the chaos of late modernity” (Steele and Homolar, 2019:219) by searching for “stabilizing anchors” (Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017:7), such as routines and biographical continuity (Agius et al., 2020:435). More than 20 years after Kinnvall's
Kinnvall describes “going back to an imagined past” (Kinnvall, 2004:744) as a strategy for coping with insecurity and regaining a sense of stability. Through this strategy, individuals and communities come to embrace “symbolic and mythical narratives that rest on imaginaries of a secure and stable past” (Agius et al., 2020:436), such as national or religious narratives. This particular approach has been analysed mainly to understand far-right narratives and mobilization (Bartoszewicz, 2021; Kinnvall, 2018; Kinnvall and Svensson, 2022; Steele and Homolar, 2019; Agius et al., 2020). However, we argue that there are also other ways of producing stability through engaging with the past. Specifically, heritage offers material and spatial reference points, as well as practices through which the past can be experienced, embodied, and felt. Indeed, heritage scholars have shown that engaging with the past by visiting heritage sites can function as such an anchor. Built heritage sites, for example, have been discussed as sources of ontological security, as they allow people to situate themselves within longer historical trajectories and experience continuity between the past and present (Sofaer et al., 2021:1124).
This paper contributes to existing research by shifting the focus from ontological security as a primarily narrative or symbolic construct to that of an active, embodied, and situated practice. We argue that ontological security is not only something that people imagine or narrate but also something that they do. Based on a case study of a traditional festival in a rural setting, we examine how heritage is performed in ways that are not necessarily right-wing populist, yet can nonetheless still produce community and a sense of security. In other words, we show how such practices can constitute a doing of ontological security that contributes to embedding and anchoring subjects in times of global insecurity, fostering relational ties that are often described as being lost.
Research on festivals has long highlighted their ambivalent character. On the one hand, festivals have been analysed as important sites of community formation and collective identity building (see, for instance, Turner, 1969; Bennett and Woodward, 2016; Duffy and Mair, 2018; Kockel et al., 2020). On the other hand, festivals have been critically discussed in the context of their instrumentalization, particularly regarding cases in which festivals become urban strategies and tools of place marketing, which stage public space as a spectacle (Smith et al., 2022); such practices are often framed as
By building on critical heritage studies that understand heritage as a process and practice in the present (Smith, 2006), as a performance, and as “doing” (Smith, 2012; Haldrup and Bœrenholdt, 2015), we approach festivals not simply as representations of a (past) community but as sites where heritage is enacted through embodied and collective practices. Festivals are therefore not only occasions for re-enacting tradition or (past) community but moments in which these practices are actively produced. We argue that these recurrent and shared practices can be understood as a “doing” of ontological security, thereby generating stability through embodied engagements with place and tradition.
We further suggest that, in times of multiple crises, festivals assume an important role as stabilizing practices of ontological security that help to embed and anchor individuals in present places and communities. To this end, we scrutinize the Schäferlauf (Shepherd's Run), a local festival held in a small town called Bad Urach in southern Germany, which was added to the UNESCO National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018. For further details, see the official website of the German UNESCO Commission:
Our case study is based on qualitative interviews conducted using the methods of photograph elicitation and reflexive photography. In the following account, we first introduce our theoretical framework (and the notion of ontological security). We then present the methods of our case study, analyse the empirical results, and end with a discussion on the role of traditional festivals in times of crisis.
In times of multiple global crises – that is, “when multiple crises interact, amplifying and complicating the impacts of one another” (Ruwanpura et al., 2025:697) – questions of security and the handling of threats become central issues in many societies (Helbrecht, 2025:217–218). Geopolitical developments shape subjective perceptions of security and insecurity (Helbrecht, 2025), and their effects are felt among ordinary citizens (Kinnvall, 2004:742). This entanglement is central to current debates in feminist geographies and critical geopolitical security studies, which reveal how security is simultaneously both local and global, and personal and political (Botterill et al., 2019, 2020).
An influential framework for understanding the link between the global geopolitical scale and individual experience is Giddens' (1991, 2008) notion of ontological security. Building on the work of psychologist Laing (1965), Giddens adapted the concept for the social sciences to explain how individuals can still maintain a sense of security in the face of global developments involving threats or crises. This subjective perception of security is grounded in a form of confidence in the self and in the surrounding social and material environment: Ontological security is the confidence that most human beings have in the continuity of their self-identity and in the constancy of the surrounding social and material environments of action. A sense of the reliability of persons and things, so central to the notion of trust, is basic to feelings of ontological security; hence the two are psychologically closely related. (Giddens, 2008:106)
Ontological security refers to “a psychological need for a sense of predictability and continuity” (Waite et al., 2014:314). This form of confidence can be understood on multiple levels, ranging from embodied everyday experiences to the more symbolic level of “being-in-the-world” (Giddens, 2008:106; see Dihlmann and Helbrecht, 2025:3). Without this fundamental sense of security, individuals may experience anxiety and a sense of disorientation, which would ultimately undermine their capacity for agency (Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017:4). Given that geopolitics are deeply interwoven with subjective feelings of security (Genz et al., 2023), examining how individuals construct and narrate their ontological security can offer valuable insights into broader societal structures and processes. Thus, the theory becomes a useful and productive lens for relating individual perceptions of (in)security to global crises and social transformations – all of which are embedded in specific societal, historical, and material contexts (Helbrecht, 2025). Ontological security thus “enables an understanding of social context alongside psychological registers that shape human security, connecting the geo-social with intimacy-geopolitics” (Botterill et al., 2020:1144).
The theory of ontological security has been widely applied across various fields of inquiry, including international relations (Mitzen, 2006; Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017), housing studies (Pohl et al., 2020; Genz and Helbrecht, 2023; Power, 2023), and migration research (Waite et al., 2014; Botterill et al., 2019). Many such studies focus on ontological insecurities (Bondi, 2014; Waite et al., 2014; Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017, 2020), such as those that arise in situations of crisis (Pustulka et al., 2024), (forced) migration (Vaughan-Williams and Pisani, 2020; Secen, 2024), or experiences of discrimination and marginalization (Croft, 2012; Dobrusskin and Helbrecht, 2021; Botterill et al., 2019). Botterill et al. (2019:472), for instance, have looked at “strategies of resistance and resilience that young people use to preserve ontological security in the context of racism and Islamophobia”.
This paper shifts the focus onto the processes of securitization (Botterill et al., 2019). Our aim is to understand the workings of the strategies of securitization and the forms of stabilizing anchors (Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017:7) that individuals use to produce and maintain ontological security. Following Bondi (2014), Kinnvall (2018), and Banham (2020), we conceptualize ontological security not as a binary condition (i.e. something one either has or does not have). Rather, we think of it as a continuum and an ongoing process. Banham (2020), building on Bondi (2014), has emphasized that “an individual can feel ontologically secure and insecure about different things simultaneously” (Banham, 2020:133), thereby rejecting the idea that (in)security represents a singular, essential state of being. Instead, ontological security can be understood as a dynamic process that is continuously negotiated – a “security of becoming” (Kinnvall and Svensson, 2022:529) – and a discourse and embodied (everyday) practice that generates feelings of stability and continuity. However, as Kinnvall indicates, “there is no core or autonomous self to return to in order to feel ontologically secure” (Kinnvall, 2018:531). Rather, we must understand feelings of security as forms of subjective imagination (Kinnvall and Svensson, 2022:529).
We engage with two core ideas from Giddens' concept of ontological security: (1) the continuity of self-identity and (2) the stability provided by both social and material environments. Ontological security emerges from the relationship between the self and the environment (Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017:5), along with an individual's embeddedness in stable socio-material surroundings. In this vein, researchers in geography (Castillo Ulloa et al., 2021; Helbrecht et al., 2021; Helbrecht, 2025) and heritage studies (Grenville, 2007, 2015; Nolan, 2019; Sofaer et al., 2021) have discussed the role of space in maintaining ontological security: Through spatial references, individuals reassure themselves of their understanding of the world and their place within it. If ontological security is thus based on specific (stable and continuous) relationships between the subject and its own identity as well as its environment, the concept of geographical imagination helps us to understand this image of the “environment” – the places, landscapes, and regions in which the subject lives, imagines itself, and becomes anchored or disanchored. (Helbrecht, 2025:223)
Building on Harvey's (1973:23–27) notion of geographical imaginations, Helbrecht et al. (2021) have revealed how spatial knowledge and geographic references intertwine with ontological security. In concurrence with narratives of the self, continuous social relationships and stable narratives of place (i.e. geographical imaginations) play an important role in the construction of ontological security. They are interwoven, thus creating a framework within which individuals continuously construct their subjective identity.
Researchers in heritage studies have engaged with the concept of ontological security to understand the subjective meanings attached to heritage sites and the historical built environment (Grenville, 2007, 2015; Nolan, 2019; Sofaer et al., 2021). For instance, Sofaer et al. (2021) highlighted the fact that visiting heritage sites “enables individuals to situate themselves within the longue durée, reflect on mortality, and find meaning in the continuity between past and present” (Sofaer et al., 2021:1124). Therefore, it has been claimed that the “social value” of the historic environment is a proxy for ontological security (Grenville, 2015:49). Specifically, Grenville (2015) suggests that ontological security is not merely about preserving buildings but rather centred on fostering civic and emotional resilience through meaningful narratives of place. Focusing on conservation policy, she calls the archaeologists and social and architectural historians to work with local populations and uncover what is important to the specific local community (Grenville, 2015:58). As stated earlier, we refer to “heritage” in the sense of critical heritage studies – as today's construction of the past, established through practices, processes, and negotiations (Smith, 2006).
Accordingly, we approach the notion of ontological security through narratives of continuity and stability that are told around the festival. We are particularly interested in how traditional festivals contribute to the production of continuity through local identity. Moreover, we examine how this affects the subjective feeling of security, specifically in terms of how it is produced as an embodied and material practice that we theorize as “doing”. We also analyse how these narratives are space related.
This research is part of a broader qualitative study on the role of geographical imaginations in feelings of ontological security in four rural areas in Germany and Canada. The objective of our methodological approach was to access the emotional and affective levels of subjective productions of space across the four locations. This paper is based on empirical data from Bad Urach (Baden–Württemberg, Germany), collected in 2022 and 2023 through 24 qualitative interviews, two collective mapping sessions (with a total of eight participants), participant observation, and document and media analysis.
To access the subjective production of space, we applied three different qualitative interview methods: photograph elicitation, reflexive photography, and collective mapping (Harper, 2002; Dobrusskin et al., 2024; Bittner and Michel, 2018). While the photograph elicitation was based on images selected by the researchers, for the reflexive photography, participants themselves took or chose their own photographs. This allowed the participants to position themselves differently in relation to the images (Pohl and Helbrecht, 2022:543). During collective mapping sessions, participants actively contributed to creating a subjective map of Bad Urach. They were asked to identify places they perceived as secure or insecure, to map their everyday routes, and to reflect on which places were particularly relevant in the town.
In the first year, we deployed photograph elicitation. A selection of photographs was used that, with the exception of one image, was identical across all four research locations. The images represented topics such as home, nature, urban–rural relations, global crises, and the “state of the world”. This was accompanied by questions that invited the participants to share the associations and feelings that the images evoked (see also Pohl and Helbrecht, 2022). One image represented the town of Bad Urach. In this case, we showed a photograph of the market square during the Schäferlauf, as our prior research had indicated that the festival is one of the main local events. In the second year of the research, we applied the method of reflexive photography. Participants were asked to take four photos on the topics of home, nature, global crises, and locality, and these were then discussed in the interviews.
Research participants were selected via snowball sampling and direct contacts. Of the 32 participants, 29 were current residents of the town, while others were former residents who remained connected to Bad Urach, for example, through family ties. As the Schäferlauf emerged as a recurring and central topic during the first phase of interviews, we followed the principle of theoretical sampling (Corbin and Strauss, 2008) in the second year and deliberately included participants who were actively engaged in the festival. The sample included participants with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds in terms of age, gender, occupation, and length of residence who were actively involved in the Schäferlauf as performers or organizers, or who participated as visitors or supporters without an official role.
Qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2022) and elements of thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022) were then applied. With the support of the software MAXQDA, we analysed the data along predefined thematic categories and recurring keywords, as well as inductively, to identify themes and aspects that emerged beyond the predefined interview questions and thematic categories.
This is one of the largest and, certainly, most colourful and spectacular traditional folk festivals here on the Swabian Alb. And the people of Urach are very, very proud of it. We're also proud that, in 2018, the Schäferlauf was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. (BU0622_33) The interviews were conducted in German and translated by the authors. All interview participants have been anonymized. In a few cases, original terms are retained in square brackets and italicized. The abbreviations in parentheses refer to anonymized interview sources and were assigned by the authors.
Officially celebrated in Bad Urach since 1723, the Schäferlauf was originally conceived as an annual gathering and general assembly of the Shepherds' Guild. On the history of the Schäferlauf in the region, see Hofmann (2003) and Schad (2011). For a detailed description of the Schäferlauf in Bad Urach and its structure, see (in German):
We use the term “traditional festival” to highlight the event's connection to heritage discourses. While the term is frequently used as a point of reference (mostly in contrast to contemporary festivals), there is no fixed terminology that defines exactly what distinguishes a contemporary festival from a traditional one. However, there are several recurring elements that can serve as a framework for understanding those festivals described as traditional. First, they reference historical communities (Giorgi and Sassatelli, 2011:4–5). Second, they aim to represent “relatively localized communities” (Bennett et al., 2016:1), with the festival serving as a means through which the community can affirm and commemorate its identity. Third, while referencing the past, their primary role is to celebrate the heritage of the community.
Our case study, the Schäferlauf in Bad Urach, is not merely a celebration of cultural heritage but also an active process of community making. In all parts of the festival, the local population is actively involved in various roles. However, the festival's meaning for the community does not derive its significance primarily from the individual rituals performed during the Schäferlauf. We argue that the festival's “social value” (Grenville, 2015) emerges from the embodied practices of the Schäferlauf, both during the months of preparations before and through the period of coming together at the festival.
These practices, which we refer to as “strategies of securitization”, enable individuals to anchor themselves in the stability of the Schäferlauf and thereby strive for (and achieve) ontological security. The festival provides both a symbolic and a material framework for a sense of stability and continuity for a being-in-the-world.
During the first phase of data collection, interview participants were shown a photograph of the Urach town square taken during the Schäferlauf. The image was not introduced or explained; instead, the participants were invited to share their spontaneous associations. For one interviewee, the photograph immediately triggered memories of the anticipation and excitement they experienced as a child during the Schäferlauf. They went on to describe their childhood recollections and early participation in the festival: Back then, we lived right in the middle of it all, near the Amandus Church. And it started early for me, even as a small child. At six in the morning, the bell would ring. “Ah, we need water for our
The interviewee described how, as a child, they were part of the Schäferlauf. Although they were not involved in the official programme or any performances, their participation was still referred to as “being right in the middle of it”. This is not defined as formal participation but rather as taking over supporting tasks that are performed in the background of the festival. Being at the heart of the action is expressed here in two ways: (1) through physical proximity, with their home being close to the centre of the events, which enabled them to provide spontaneous, last-minute help, such as fetching water for the horses, and (2) through social integration within the local association structures. Together, these aspects created a strong sense of involvement, even without official roles, and contributed to the feeling of being an integral part of the festival community. This example highlights the various forms of participation and commitment, as well as the sense of togetherness among those who perform and those without a specific role but who still contribute behind the scenes. It shifts or expands the meaning of the festival towards the community itself, which – through its efforts at all levels in the background – makes the event possible in the first place.
Kinnvall and Mitzen (2017), drawing on Giddens, have argued that a sense of biographical continuity is a prerequisite for the creation of ontological security (Kinnvall and Mitzen, 2017:6), through which subjects affirm themselves in the world. In this context, the Schäferlauf offers such a form of continuity and becomes part of the intimate self-narration that provides the subject with a stable sense of identity. The above quote emphasizes the personal importance of and emotional attachment to the festival and also shows the manner in which self-narratives are constructed through the Schäferlauf. Viewing the photograph reactivated memories and embodied experiences, thereby highlighting the affective bond between the festival, the individual, and their personal biography. The quote also illuminates the embodied and place-based aspects of the Schäferlauf: sitting around a table and preparing a potato salad becomes a practice of social connection and, at the same time, demonstrates how continuity and stability are “done” through specific practices.
For some participants involved in performances or the parade, this sense of community and reconnection developed long before the official event. Local residents collaborate over several months to prepare the festival. Across various locations in the town – clubhouses, community centres, and private homes – people come together to craft, rehearse, sing, dance, and sew. These social relationships formed around the Schäferlauf emerge through close interaction in the preparatory phases, as well as through active participation in the event itself – through the shared “doing” of the Schäferlauf. Here, not only are social bonds created but knowledge is also produced and passed on. These practices are more than acts of repetition of established rituals; they are processes of mutual learning. In this sense, they can be understood as communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 2013 [1998], 2000). While the concept was originally developed to understand “learning as a social process” (Wenger, 2000:226), we follow Amin and Roberts in adopting a broader understanding of communities of practice as sites of “knowledge creation” (Amin and Roberts, 2008:356) or production. This also enables us to grasp the productive aspects of these practices.
This ongoing involvement creates a form of participation that embeds individuals into the festival well in advance of its public appearance, thereby fostering a strong sense of belonging and commitment. This personal commitment was especially emphasized in the context of conflict. In response to complaints regarding noise levels and local disruptions, one participant highlighted the fact that since they invested their free time months in advance to prepare for the festival, they had earned the right to enjoy a proper celebration: We've been working towards this since March or April, rehearsing once or twice a week. For us, the Schäferlauf is really just one big celebration. And I think we've earned it – if you spend half a year practising regularly, putting a lot of your free time into it, then you deserve to be rewarded with a great party. So, when they say the pub has to close at 1 a.m., it's like, why am I even doing this? Just let Schäferlauf be Schäferlauf. (BU0523_59)
The above quote refers to the most prominent dance group of the festival, the
These preparatory practices are an integral part of local social life in the months before the festival period, helping to establish and strengthen social ties. The dance group is regularly invited to perform at other events, both within and outside town. These practices extend the festival's impact beyond the three days, generating social bonds that transcend the formal context of the dance group. These connections, formed in the context of the festival, also evolve into lasting friendships. As one interviewee shared, the group had already organized several trips together (BU0323_113). These are not merely performance communities but communities of friends who celebrate together, travel together, and maintain enduring relationships that reach far beyond the Schäferlauf itself. This particular person had been actively involved in the I think I still see myself being part of it later on as an
While the interviewee cannot yet imagine attending the Schäferlauf simply as a regular visitor or spectator, there is nonetheless a sense of confidence that will endure due to the connection to the festival. This sense of continuity is symbolically reflected in the term But I think you can really tell – for example, when it comes to the
Thus, the narrative of the self is closely tied to the group and, through it, to the festival. Stepping down as a dancer brings the fear of exclusion – of becoming merely an external spectator. However, the role of the
These strategies of securitization extend into the embodied experience of the participants wearing the traditional folk costumes ( The costumes are, of course, tied to the dancing, and the
The traditional costume represents (engendered) narratives of history, continuity, and identity. For the interviewee, stepping into an old
On the one hand, the above quote emphasizes the bodily and material dimensions of these practices. On the other hand, it indicates the intricate entanglement of the discursive and the material. The subject is one element in the production of continuity, but the wearer's subjectivity is not the focus. Rather, continuity emerges through the intertwinement and, therefore, the co-production of bodies, discourses, and materialities.
Overall, these narratives of biography, embodiment, and community building illustrate how the Schäferlauf offers a framework for the continuity of self-identity, extending to the act of wearing the
In 2021, there wasn't a proper official Schäferlauf, because of Corona – everything was cancelled. There was a small, scaled-down version, but it was more like a sign of loyalty from the town to the event. Because, of course, there couldn't have been a better excuse to just stop doing it. It was kind of like back in 2009, after the financial crisis in 2008, or so. Yeah, Heidenheim – also a Schäferlauf town in Baden–Württemberg – cancelled theirs because of the crisis, and they haven't held it since. So with a crisis like that, or some major event like the financial crisis or Corona, it's always a convenient opportunity to pull out of something like that, to stop being part of it, or to just let it die out. (BU0523_57)
The persistence of the festival in Bad Urach is further reinforced by the narrative surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, the interviewee described a crisis as the perfect opportunity for the city administration to distance itself from such an event; in other words, it is an opportunity to get out of it (
The quote also shows that this continuity is not a given. A festival can still be cancelled, particularly in times of crisis. Creating continuity requires the active involvement of multiple actors. The city administration plays a crucial role by providing a framework for the event. However, the festival also relies on being passed on and re-performed by the community to remain a vivid event. This was demonstrated in the previous section through individual commitment over several months to prepare for and perform at the festival. The same applies to the commitment to return to Bad Urach for the Schäferlauf.
During the Schäferlauf, Bad Urach becomes a place to return to for many of those who have moved away. Interviewees even described attendance as being almost an obligation for Urachers, with one interviewee stating that the personal “mistake” of booking a vacation elsewhere during the Schäferlauf, and consequently missing the event, only happens once (BU0422_23). Thus, the practice of returning to Bad Urach during the Schäferlauf is essential to being an It kind of doesn't work without it, you know? Like, even back then – when I think of old, earlier friends or classmates, who by now have ended up all over the world. But as someone from Urach, or an
This quote demonstrates how strongly Bad Urach's local identity is tied to the Schäferlauf and how returning for the event every two years represents a sense of continuity. The Schäferlauf serves as a stable, recurring temporal and spatial anchor connecting those who stayed with those who moved away. It sustains the continuity of a globally networked community and sense of belonging, which is described here as being an
The community of the
As the interviewee explains, the ritual of
Although not officially part of the programme,
At the same time,
While our research in Bad Urach identified the Schäferlauf as an important source of ontological security for many current and former residents, this perspective also has limitations. The festival does not function as a stabilizing anchor for everyone. In our data, other, sometimes more critical, perspectives were also represented and reflected by some residents of Bad Urach.
First, not all residents attributed the same relevance to the festival, and not all embodied practices generated emotional resonance. Our empirical material also points to a degree of disinterest towards the festival, both in terms of active participation and as an audience. The explanations that some interviewees offered were varied and often framed as matters of personal preference or simply not feeling that the festival suited them. One person stated, “I honestly can't relate to the music at all” (BU0723_135). Others explained their distance in more general terms, as, for example, “I don't have that gene” (BU1123_38) to engage actively in the festival, or “I'm not the type for it” (BU1022_41), referring to just attending the festival.
Second, our material also reveals earnest critique of the festival and its traditions. One of the interviewees criticized the continued performance of songs in the
These statements show that the continuity of the festival is also tied to narratives and performances that reproduce sexist patterns rooted in patriarchal gender roles of the past. The disregard of these problematic representations of violence and, more broadly, of women within the festival shows that such continuity can also become destabilizing. In this case, it contributes to a sense of ontological insecurity from the embodied and situated perspective of a woman. These statements indicate that the continuity enacted through the festival is neither uncontested nor universally affirmed. Rather, it is negotiated and, at times, resisted. The statements also show how excluding narratives contribute to embodied and situated feelings of ontological (in)security associated with the festival.
Third, one interviewee explicitly described the perceived exclusions structured along the distinction between the new residential area ( There is a new residential area and the historic core, and they differ fundamentally. People are always talking about “those or others”. So, for me, there is no bridge there, but rather a wall – that is how it feels. And what I find very sad, and that is why I mentioned the children's festival (
The participant who lived in the new residential area, and thus positioned herself as a newcomer to Bad Urach, emphasized that she was denied the possibility of active participation in local traditions. She described the relation between these two places as a wall (
As we have shown throughout this paper, ontological security at the Schäferlauf functions through embodied and place-based practices. This also means that what is done can be done differently. The emergence of informal practices, such as
If we understand heritage as a present-day practice with a contemporary function, rather than as a reproduction of a
Narratives of ontological security often entail stories of continuity and can thus be related to narratives of heritage. As heritage scholars have revealed, built heritage sites can serve as anchors of ontological security. Similarly, we demonstrated how such reassuring narratives and the formation of stable identities are produced through the Schäferlauf festival – both in terms of biographical continuity for individuals and in shaping the identity of the place. In this sense, the festival re-creates the past through the historical narratives of Bad Urach, thus embedding them within a traditional celebration that re-enacts and updates established rites.
However, our research revealed that these stabilizing anchors are not merely discursive, nor simply narratives that individuals tell themselves to maintain a sense of continuity and security. Rather, they can also be understood as something that is
Finally, what is produced here is a form of spatial knowledge that reflects a sense of security in a globally connected world. A specific spatial identity emerges: being a Uracher means always having the possibility of returning. Many people no longer live in the town or do not live there permanently; however, they retain a sense of home, a place they can always come back to. One can leave Bad Urach and, at the same time, one is always invited to return. Being rooted in this manner is mediated through the festival itself. At the same time, the act of returning highlights the entanglement of the local with the global. In this sense, the festival serves as a stabilizing anchor for subjective ontological security. However, it is important to acknowledge that this stabilizing force can also maintain exclusions and reproduce existing power relations. This can be the case when, as we showed above, subjective experiences of security are grounded in narratives of continuity that emphasize non-change, thereby essentializing local identities and upholding existing structures that might be patriarchal or racist, for example, and thus actively exclude and produce “others”. These ambivalences do not negate the sense of security that the festival offers, but they do call for a critical evaluation of the ways in which the processes of securitization are produced and maintained. While our study provides valuable insights into the material and embodied dimensions of ontological security, future research should explore how practices that stabilize some can exclude others, including how attachment to continuity may itself be a mechanism of boundary making.
The data are currently not publicly available.
IH planned and co-conducted the empirical research. Both authors conducted the analysis of the empirical material, developed the conceptual framework, and structured the argument of the article. JJ led the preparation and revision of the paper, with conceptual and analytical contributions from IH.
The contact author has declared that neither of the authors has any competing interests.
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. The authors bear the ultimate responsibility for providing appropriate place names. Views expressed in the text are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
We would like to thank Sophie Krone for conducting the interviews. We also thank the student assistants in the project – Lina Merkord, Franz Chen Jun Nguyen, and Julian Paulenz – for their support in the data analysis. We are grateful to our team colleagues from the Cultural and Social Geography group at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin for commenting on a previous draft of this article. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our paper and their valuable comments, which helped us to improve the article.
This research has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant no. 290045248 – SFB 1265).
This paper was edited by Hanna Hilbrandt and reviewed by two anonymous referees.