1st Edition
Meaningful Journeys Autoethnographies of Quest and Identity Transformation
1. Meaningful Journeys, Identity Transformation, and Autoethnographic Selfhood
Alec Grant and Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes
2. Running Towards Death: A tale of an old man in trainers
Alec Grant
3. The Red Carpet Quest: An ironman competitor’s transformational journey
Tina Thomas
4. A Motorcycle Pilgrimage on Icelandic F-Roads
Jason Wragg
5. Solo Trails/Trials for this Unlikely Hiker: Purpose, purity, and quest
Phiona Stanley
6. The Pilgrimage to Manhood: An autoethnographic account of transition from female to male as a journey of self-discovery
Alexander Boswell
7. A Scot an’ a Sassenach Scrieve Aboot Leid: A three pairt Scotoethnography (A Scot and an English person write about language: A Scotoethnography in three parts)
Alec Grant and Susan Young
8. Curative Encounters: Representations of the transformational journey of the pilgrim to Lourdes
Simon Thomas, Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes, and Rebecca Hedd Thomas
9. Welsh Pilgrimage: A quest for a reaffirmed national identity and a secular journey to a spiritual locus
Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes
10. A Journey Through Prolonged Grief: Transforming identity to heal and reconcile loss
Linita Eapen Mathew
11. Professor Out of a Suitcase (or Ferris Bueller’s Year Off)
Reinekke Lengelle
12. Paying Respects to The Greatest: Ziyarat in Louisville, Kentucky
Sophia Arjana
13. Pilgrimage to a Shared Site: A Buddhist scholar and Muslim scholar visit Borobudur
Blayne Harcey and Sophia Arjana
Biography
Alec Grant, PhD, is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, University of Bolton, England, UK.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lloyd-Parkes, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of South Wales, Newport, Wales, UK.
"This an intriguing book. Apart from being scholarly, it is of huge interest. I found myself transfixed by many of the journeys described. The book can be read at several levels. Two were more apparent to me. First, there are the individual journeys and stories. In themselves these are fascinating. I wanted to know more about the authors than was present in even these more authentic autoethnographic accounts. Second, there are the implications for the reader and their own life journeys. Bono intoned, ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’ I wondered, have these authors found it? As readers we are indebted to Professor Grant and Dr Lloyd-Parkes for such a thoughtful collection of ‘travel’ accounts." -- Jerome Carson, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Bolton, UK
"I view this work as a foundational piece for those aspiring to write, offering insights into the creation of meaningful narratives. These narratives span a spectrum from sports and adventure to personal identity, healing through faith, cherished places, nostalgia, overcoming sorrow, nomadic experiences, and spiritual quests...I recommend this book as a foundational text for readers from traditional and practice-based disciplines undertaking qualitative research methods, subscribing to autoethnographic inquiry, and exploring their meaningful journeys of quest and identity transformation. Finally, I also find this book beneficial for crafting my meaningful journeys of quest and identity transformation in the scholarship." -- Niroj Dahal, Kathmandu University, Nepal
