Meaningful Journeys

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.

• 1. Meaningful Journeys, Identity Transformation, and Autoethnographic Selfhood 2. Running Towards Death: A Tale of an Old Man in Trainers 3. The Red Carpet Quest: An Ironman Competitor’s Transformational Journey 4. A Motorcycle Pilgrimage on Icelandic F-Roads 5. Solo Trails/Trials for this Unlikely Hiker: Purpose, Purity, and Quest 6. The Pilgrimage to Manhood: An Autoethnographic Account of Transition from Female to Male as a Journey of Self-discovery 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) 8. Curative Encounters: Representations of the Transformational Journey of the Pilgrim to Lourdes 9. Welsh Pilgrimage: A Quest for a Reaffirmed, National Identity and a Secular Journey to a Spiritual Locus 10. A Journey through Prolonged Grief: Transforming Identity to Heal and Reconcile Loss 11. Professor Out of a Suitcase (or Ferris Bueller’s Year Off) 12. Paying Respects to The Greatest: Ziyarat in Louisville, Kentucky 13. Pilgrimage to a Shared Site: A Buddhist Scholar and Muslim Scholar Visit Borobudur

"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