'Walking the talk': transposition of religious culture in OWS

This paper analyzes the participation of Kundalini Yoga teachers in the Occupy Wall Street social movement. While much of the existing literature on the intersection of social movements and religion focuses on how religious culture supports activism, I examine how actors with strong religious commitments attempt to expand the scope of their participation within a predominantly secular social movement. Using the concepts of transposition and creative action, I demonstrate how these yoga teachers adapted their culture through the operations of framing and linking, appropriation, and secularization to enact normative commitments across different settings and audiences. After presenting empirical evidence that supports these assertions, I discuss the implications of my findings for recent debates over how culture shapes action, particularly the intertwining roles of deep culture, consciousness, and creativity.