Short description:

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. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of essays provides sociological insights into death, dying and bereavement.

Long description:

While 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. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of chapters 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.

?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

Table of Contents:

Introduction  Part I: Theory  1. Death is Social: A Sketch for a Reflexive Sociology of Death, Dying and Bereavement  2. The Financial Life of Funerals before Death  3. Sociological Insights into Post-Death Time Experiences  4. Social Change, Collective Loss, Planet Earth  Part II: Dying  5. Sociology and Palliative Care: Travelling Concepts and Possibilities for Sociology  6. The Biopolitical Economy of Dying in Care Homes: A Theoretical Framework  7. A Socio-Legal Investigation into Making Plans for Dying: Perspectives of People with Dementia  8. Representing Illness and Dying: The Uses of Sociology  Part III: After Death  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  10. Beyond the Individualisation of Risk: Lessons from the Japanese Response to COVID-19  11. Sociology and the Greening of Death in Aotearoa New Zealand  12. Complex Worlds, Complex People: Auto-Ethnographic Conversations on Decolonising the Aftermath of Death  Conclusion: The Importance of Death, Dying, and Bereavement for Sociology