1st Edition
Death, Dying and Bereavement New Sociological Perspectives
Whilst death, dying and bereavement are universal life events, the social conditions under which death takes place are fundamental in shaping how it is experienced by the individual and their family and friends. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of essays provides sociological insights into death, dying and bereavement.
Drawing upon a range of sociological theorists including Émile Durkheim, Zygmunt Bauman and C. Wright Mills, the book reviews the historical contribution of sociology to the field of thanatology. In doing so, the book challenges individualistic psychological approaches to death, dying and bereavement and demonstrates how sociological approaches can shape, constrain and empower experiences by imbuing them with both collective and individual meaning. Chapter-length case studies explore a wide range of issues, from digital aspects of remembrance and memorialisation and continued threats to liberties that permit life and death decisions to discussions of the impact and likely legacy of COVID-19 and climate change.
This collection will be of interest to students and researchers in the social sciences with an interest in societal attitudes towards death and bereavement.
Introduction
Laura Towers and Sharon Mallon
Part I: Theory
1. Death is Social: A Sketch for a Reflexive Sociology of Death, Dying and Bereavement
Adriana Teodorescu
2. The Financial Life of Funerals before Death
Samantha Fletcher and William McGowan
3. Sociological Insights into Post-Death Time Experiences
Glenys Caswell
4. Social Change, Collective Loss, Planet Earth
Tony Walter
Part II: Dying
5. Sociology and Palliative Care: Travelling Concepts and Possibilities for Sociology
Erica Borgstrom
6. The Biopolitical Economy of Dying in Care Homes: A Theoretical Framework
Diana Teggi
7. A Socio-Legal Investigation into Making Plans for Dying: Perspectives of People with Dementia
Chloe Waterman, Rosie Harding and Elizabeth Peel
8. Representing Illness and Dying: The Uses of Sociology
Michael Brennan
9. “Death is for the living”: Ontology of Grief in the Context of Intimate Partnership - Case Study of a Widow, a Fiancée and a Lover in India
Neelakshi Talukdar
10. Beyond the Individualisation of Risk: Lessons from the Japanese Response to COVID-19 Norichika Horie
11. Sociology and the Greening of Death in Aotearoa New Zealand
Ruth McManus, Denise Blake and Dot Brown
12. Complex Worlds, Complex People: Auto-Ethnographic Conversations on Decolonising the Aftermath of Death
Berenice Golding, Sukhbinder Hamilton and Jane Ribbens McCarthy
Conclusion: The Importance of Death, Dying, and Bereavement for Sociology
Jenny Huberman
Biography
Sharon Mallon is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health at the University of Staffordshire, UK. She is an experienced qualitative researcher who specialises in projects focused on bereavement and mental health, particularly suicide postvention and prevention, the gendered, social approaches to understanding death by suicide, and the wider impact of suicide bereavement on different bereaved groups. She has also developed a strong interest in the emotional impact of researching sensitive subjects on researchers. She was awarded her PhD for a qualitative study of young adults’ suicides from the perspective of their friends. She is co-editor of Preventing and Responding to Student Suicide: A Practical Guide for FE and HE Settings (2021), Narratives of COVID: Loss, Dying, Death and Grief during COVID-19 (2021), and Unpacking Sensitive Research: Epistemological and Methodological Implications (Routledge, 2022).
Laura Towers is a Research Associate in the Sheffield Methods Institute at the University of Sheffield, UK. Laura’s research interests include exploring the complexity of negotiating changing relationships and identities within the context of grief and bereavement, such as following the loss of a sibling. She is currently working with Professor Kate Reed on bereavement-focused research and with Hospice UK on people’s experiences at work when caring for a dying relative. She was co-convenor of the British Sociological Association’s Social Aspects of Death, Dying and Bereavement Study Group between 2017 and 2022.
“These international authors and editors offer a substantial review of the cutting-edge of sociological insight into contemporary death, dying, and bereavement. The chapters engage with a fascinating span of analyses at the intersections of climate change, intersectionality, professional care, and the sociologies of time, reflexivity, or decoloniality. This book raises the bar for current sociological debates on human mortality.”
Allan Kellehear, Professor of Health and Social Care, Northumbria University, UK
“A wide-ranging collection of chapters that provide academic and political insight into the contemporary experience of death, of dying and of bereavement. As a whole, the volume engages with many key concerns and debates, making it invaluable reading for those working or interested in this area of scholarship.”
Gayle Letherby, Visiting Professor of Sociology, University of Plymouth, UK and Visiting Professor, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK
