Yoga teachers' authority: knowledge, power, and professional dynamics

In recent years, the figure of the yoga teacher has become established in many places as a preferred "career change" path for people seeking to give new meaning not only to their professional activity but more generally to their daily lives. Traditional media outlets, social media feeds, and cultural productions in general are full of stories of people quitting their (sometimes high-paying) jobs to become yoga teachers. While such radical transformations seem to vindicate the physical, psychological, and spiritual “salvation goods” (Weber) attributed to the practice, especially in its “modern postural” form (Singleton 2010), institutional recognition of the profession is low. Although training programs have multiplied internationally and turned into a profitable market, there are no widely accepted standards in terms of format or content. Years-long trainings coexist alongside 200-hour programs that people can do in a month; transmission through lineages (ashtanga, Iyengar, Sivananda) coexists alongside post-lineage and commodified forms (Wildcroft 2020). In France for instance, contrary to other similar occupations, there is no nationally recognized diploma or certification to bolster the profession. In a way, anyone can declare themselves a yoga teacher.

In this context, what are the material and symbolic resources, the mechanisms, and the strategies that can be identified, both at the individual and group level, to claim professionalism, assert authority, and gain recognition? How do professionalization processes articulate or clash with forms of charismatic domination commonly associated with the figure of the guru (Pagis 2024)? And how do they shape and affect teacher-student relationships? To answer these questions, this paper draws on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork conducted in Paris since 2023, involving immersive participation in 140 group classes in different locations, a 200-hour yoga teacher training, and 40 interviews with yoga professionals (teachers, studio managers, trainers).