Fortune-telling, women's friendship, and divination commodification in contemporary Italy

This chapter explores the practice of fortune-telling among female friends in contemporary Italy. While expanding the scope of feminist knowledge into under-investigated practices of divination, it aims to contribute to the growing literature on patriarchy, women’s (self-)care practices, and commodification of intimacies in the global north with attention to the role of global factors.
Data are provided by a research study inspired by the feminist sociological critical approach of Institutional Ethnography, which includes participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect the standpoint of the women involved in such practices. Results show how, through the practice of divination, women negotiate with or resist the dominant discourse that rules gender roles and relations, and how they fill in the disjunctures between their actual needs and societal requests. Finally, the findings point out the role of emotional support provided by these practices while they contribute to developing new forms of spirituality.