Methodologies

The methodology that is being used in this pilot study of CPIS is the fieldwork, in articulation with documentary work, discussion groups, participant observation, GIS, and interviews with pilgrims and social agents involved in CPIS. This articulation will allow us to produce a qualitative exploratory knowledge about the revitalization of this route of pilgrimage (Phillips & Goodson, 2004; Gutiérrez Brito, 2006, Ateljevitch, 2007; Richards & Munsters, 2010). Since January 2016 and in different periods, we have covered the Inner Portuguese Way of Santiago de Compostela, from Farminhão (Viseu) to Verim (Galicia – Spain), for a total of approximately 230 kilometers. During the walks we recorded the course in an audiovisual way, identified and analysed the signs, and talked with hospitable people, hotel managers, restaurateurs, tourism technicians, pilgrims and the local population. This experience of auto-anthropology and fieldwork, recorded in a field diary, placed us in a position of intimate living close to the CPIS, which allowed us to discover how pilgrims live the experience of the Turipilgrim trip (Galani-Moutafi 1999; Pereiro and Gómez-Ullate, 2018).