The Evolving Paradigm of Victorian Necropolises Their Emergence and Contribution to London's
The Evolving Paradigm of Victorian Necropolises
Their emergence and contribution to London's plan from early nineteenth century to modernity
Abstract:
In the early nineteenth century, medical research sustained that the overcrowded and poorly-maintained parish churchyards of London were a breeding ground for diseases, and a threat to the public health of Londoners. Prior to the publication of any documented research that proved this statement, private enterprises were already at work establishing new cemeteries in the suburbs of London and exploiting burials as commercial opportunities.
The implementation of the railway generated centrifugal forces of urban expansion that enabled a socio-geographical redistribution of population into London’s suburbs, assimilating most of its Victorian necropolises within its new fabric. Although this condition prevented most of the Victorian necropolises from any further expansion, these burial spaces started to be appreciated for their contribution to the city as open spaces. However, as legislations forbade the reuse of graves, most of London’s Victorian necropolises were facing a destiny of burial space shortage and overcrowding.
The purpose of this work is to make explicit the systems based on which the paradigm of the Victorian necropolis was introduced as a new model of burial in London, replacing the medieval model of church burial. Furthermore, it also aims to clarify how this line of development contributed to the urbanisation process of modern London, and to the secularisation of death culture.
Many, often remarkable, works have sought to study the representations of death in the space of the Victorian cemetery. It is due to the knowledge built up in these preceding studies that it was possible and necessary to initiate research that would look specifically at the paradigm of the Victorian necropolis and its evolution, as well as its contribution to the London plan. This thesis aims to research these overlooked aspects, and is particularly interested in addressing the following questions:
What were the motives for a new paradigm for burial being introduced in the first place?
What did this paradigm consist of? What was its contribution toward London’s plan?
How did the paradigm of the Victorian cemetery evolve when observed in relation to the expansion of London in the nineteenth century?
By Gian Luca Amadei
Exploring the Obstacles: Negotiating Dying in New Zealand
Currentresearch
The personal experience of end of life care is profoundly influenced by the social issues of accessibility and acceptability. Although existing research on palliative care provision in New Zealand confirms the importance of geography and ethnicity as consistent barriers to good palliation, conceptual and practical obstacles impede research into the combined effects of accessibility and acceptability in terms of satisfactory end of life care. This paper discusses some key conceptual and methodological issues in researching end of life care from a sociological perspective.
Feeling bad about funeral debt? How condemning the cost of funerals may exacerbate disparity.
Conference: TASA/ SAANZ annual conference. Brisbane, November 2012
Abstract
Funerals are costly. Curiously, in countries that rely on debt to grease the wheels of economic activity, prevailing social discourses condemn funeral debt as irresponsible. Funeral directors and the bereaved who succumb to funeral debt are regarded as social outsiders because emotions of greed and grief are seen to have overwhelmed financial prudence in favour of ostentatious funerary display. Based on a mixed-methods study of funerals and debt in New Zealand, we argue two points. First, that prevailing discourses constitute funeral arrangers as outsiders who experience this ostracism as emotional conflict over the cost of funerals. We found that participants challenged and renegotiated this social status by achieving responsibility in two interconnected ways: subjectively, they re-calibrate their spoiled identity through speaking of themselves in emotional registers that articulate responsibility. Materially, they develop and adopt multiple strategies, including debt, that actively manage funeral costs in what they see as responsible ways. Negotiating the conventional discourse in these ways reclaims their social status. Secondly, this process of reclamation is uneven and for certain groups, self-defeating. While escalating the risk of defaulting, young manual workers emphasised individualised responsibility and personal debt as the only viable means to challenge discourses that condemned them and re-assert their status as insiders. In a context that condemns the costs of funerals, reclaiming social status encourages funeral debt in those who can least afford it and in doing so, contributes to the perpetuation of socio-economic disparity.
Finding Solace in death and destruction: From the Clydebank Blitz to the Christchurch Earthquake
Conference: Death in Modern Scotland, Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices 1855-1955.
New College, University of Edinburgh 01-03 February 2013
War and natural disasters share many features including great loss of life, traumatised populations and haunting memories. Many histories recount such memories in a disembodied way –as narratives of events long ago that are intriguing because they seem alien and unrecognisable from the present point of view; their influence on contemporary grief and death-ways is indirect. This paper draws from the project Stories of Movement: experiences of disruption and adjustment in a post-quake city that is gathering narratives of the devastating Christchurch earthquakes of 2010/11. Given the influence of Scottish and Presbyterian traditions in the city, its high number of British residents and the current influx of British migrant workers for the rebuild, this paper, Finding solace in death and destruction, focuses on how connections through time are made and remade and how the past is brought out in the service of the present in terms of Scottish disaster narratives and the grief-ways they contain.
Dr Ruth McManus
Sociology Department,
School of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Canterbury,
Christchurch,New Zealand
phone : +64 3 364 2987 ext 3046 fax : +64 3 364 2977
Research:
Professional: President SAANZ
new book: Death in a Global Age, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
Family Practices during Life-threatening Illness: Exploring the Everyday
This thesis explores the experiences of individuals living in a family where a member is dying or has a life-threatening illness. It focuses in particular upon how families are actively produced in the everyday ‘doing’ of day-to-day family life (Morgan, 1996) in circumstances of severe ill-health and when facing death. Using an ethnographic approach combining informal, in-depth interviews with nine families and participant observation on a hospice ward, the research provides insight into how families experience themselves as family in the ‘here-and-now’ of their daily lives. It will be argued that in both popular culture and theoretical work there is a pervasive tendency to associate death with crisis and that the more ordinary, everyday and mundane aspects of dying experiences are less well understood. Therefore, the analysis of family lives presented here moves away from the more familiar model of emotional crisis and rupture in relation to severe ill-health and dying, to ask new questions about the ‘everydayness’ of people’s feelings and experiences during this time. A more nuanced picture of living with life-threatening illness and dying is provided as the data chapters explore the everyday and mundane in relation to families’ experiences. Analysing empirical data about various aspects of day-to-day life - including eating practices, spatial dynamics and material objects - the thesis shows how ill-health and dying are not discrete ontological experiences existing outside and separate from everyday life. Rather, in paying attention to the ‘doing’ of being a family day-to-day, this research brings more squarely into view, the everyday as a lived experience (Felski, 1999) within which families come to ‘know’ their experiences of illness and dying.
Felski, R. (1999) The invention of everyday life. New Formations 39, 15-31.
Morgan, D. H. J. (1996) Family Connections. An Introduction to Family Studies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Julie Ellis, University of Sheffield, thesis submitted Sept 2010
Death Studies, 35: 22–41, 2011
DOI: 10.1080/07481181003765592
CONTINUING BONDS IN BEREAVED PAKISTANI MUSLIMS: EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND RELIGION
KAUSAR SUHAIL and NAILA JAMIL
Department of Psychology, Government College University Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan JAN OYEBODE School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK MOHAMMAD ASIR AJMAL Department of Psychology, Government College University Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
This study explores the bereavement process and continuing bond in Pakistani Muslims with the focus on how culture and religion influence these processes. Ten participants were interviewed and their transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.
Three main domains were identified from the narratives expressed by the participants: death and the process of grieving, continuing the link with the deceased, and influencing agents. The findings indicated that Pakistani Muslims maintained their link with the deceased through cultural and religious rituals, such as performing prayers, reciting holy verses, talk- ing and dreaming about the deceased, doing charity, visiting graves, and arranging communal gatherings. The prime purpose of many of these practices was the for- giveness of the deceased.
Grief reactions seemed to be determined by the nature of death, prior relationships with the deceased, reaction of society and gender of the bereaved. Religion provided a strong basis for coping and adjustment of the bereaved, through rationalizing and accepting the death. This study has important implications for counselors and family therapists who can use religious affiliations to reduce the impact of loss and complicated bereavement.
Death Studies, 33: 890–912, 2009
DOI: 10.1080/07481180903251554
INFLUENCES OF RELIGION AND CULTURE ON CONTINUING BONDS IN A SAMPLE OF BRITISH MUSLIMS OF PAKISTANI
ORIGIN HANAN HUSSEIN and JAN R. OYEBODE School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
This study considered the nature of continuing bonds with deceased relatives in a sample of Pakistani Muslims living in the United Kingdom. Ten participants1 were interviewed following a cultural psychology approach and transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Dreaming, talking with others about the deceased, following the deceased’s example, keeping memories and mementos, and doing actions thought to help the deceased were forms of continued relationship found. These were intertwined with the process of grieving and were influenced by the family, culture, and religion.
Religion was a strong influence on the prominence given by participants to finishing well and on the notion of doing actions thought to help the deceased. Cultural mores, such as the community, and collectivist ethos and the expectation that emotion would be expressed around the time of death, were found to be supportive for some but sources of tension for other participants. Expressing a continuing bond through following the deceased’s example so as to make them proud or happy seemed to be reinforced by cultural roots in respect for elders. Participants gave instances of tensions in areas such as expression of emotion and communality versus individualism that arose as a result of their position between two cultural frameworks, some illustrating how assimilation into the host culture set up conflict with the expected norms of their family=ancestral culture. The study highlights how understanding different cultural and religious influences may enrich the concept of continuing bonds.
Jan R Oyebode, BA(Hons), M Psychol(Clinical), PhD, C.Psychol(Clinical).
Professor of Dementia Care, Bradford Dementia Group.
University of Bradford
Richmond Road
Bradford
BD7 1DP
The Politics of Sudden Death: The Office and Role of the Coroner in England and Wales, 1726-1888
Abstract
The office of coroner has attracted little attention from academic historians. This thesis presents the first comprehensive study of the role across England and Wales between 1726 and 1888. It engages with, and throws new light on, some of the major themes that run through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British history: popular politics, the rise of democracy, the growth of the state and the development of separate professional spheres. Petty rivalries were confronted, as the developing professions of law and medicine jostled to claim this office as their birthright, but the coroners were also minor players on a much larger stage. They had to bear some of the pain of the many conflicts that emerged as society tried to define the level and nature of services to be funded from taxation, and to strike a balance between local and central control, and between lay and professional involvement.
This thesis explains how local structures of power and authority affected many aspects of the role, including the selection of the coroner, the types of death investigated and the nature and frequency of medical testimony admitted. It explains how a medieval system was adapted to suit changing needs, how the inquest could be used to challenge the actions of those who had a duty of care to the community and how financial impositions could restrict its utility. The thesis provides the first detailed geographic assessment of the role of county magistrates in defining when an inquest should be held, and identifies the startling possibility that some county magistrates may deliberately have sought to establish a system that would ensure that certain murders would never be discovered.
Pamela J. Fisher
Thesis was awarded by University of Leicester in 2007
Who joins a UK right to die society and why?
A study of members of Friends at the End (FATE)
Abstract
The thesis presents quantitative and qualitative thematic analyses of a postal survey and interview study of members of Friends at the End (FATE), a Glasgow-based right to die society. This is one of the first UK studies aimed toward filling a gap in knowledge about who joins a UK right to die society, and their reasons for doing so. The thesis attributes responsibility for the right to die movement’s continuing existence to contemporary socio-cultural norms of individualism and self-determination in promoting desire for autonomy and choice surrounding dying and death. It shows how and why a distinct group of predominantly older and higher social class individuals, 22% of whom have health and social care professional backgrounds, have decided to join FATE. The right to die movement is shown to be a new social movement concerned with health, ageing and death activism that challenges contemporary biomedical models of managing dying and death. The thesis shows how ageing, social class, religiosity, socio-medical constructs of dying, risk management and altruism toward others all contribute toward the ongoing existence of pro-right to die attitudes and beliefs. It also shows how personal fears about the manner of future dying, both physical and existential are frequently informed by personal experiences, identified as critical factors in decisions made to join the movement. FATE exists in a culture in which assessing risk has become very pervasive, and joining FATE is, for many members, a risk-avoidance strategy, given their concerns that future dying and death may be unpleasant. Conditional desire for hastened death is also shown to be informed by desire to avoid placing burden on others, a form of reciprocal altruism in which hastened death benefits both the dying person and family members as well as society as a whole.
Biography: Marion Judd, PhD
Having worked in the NHS between 1964 – 2005 as a physiotherapist and latterly as a manager, I retired from the NHS in 2005. In 2006 I commenced a post graduate medical sociology degree, gaining a PhD in 2012. Currently, being unemployable due to age, I am working on papers with the aim of submission for future publication.
Journal Article : May 2010 Technological Taxidermy : Recognisable Faces in Celebrity Deaths; Mortality Vol 15, number 2, p138. ISSN 1357-6275 (print) ISSN 1469-9885 (online). DOI : 10.1080/13576275.2010.482773
In contemporary celebrity culture it would appear that there is a media obsession with exposing all facets of lifestyles pertaining to the famous. It is not surprising therefore, that a similar preoccupation is evident when the famous die and narratives
surrounding the deaths of Jade Goody, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson in 2009
alone, are sources of continued fascination within visual culture. This paper investigates how death is made visible whilst documenting dead celebrities
and questions whether the camera discloses all facets relating to the presence of death.Using news coverage of George Best’s death in November 2005 and Princess Diana in September 1997, this study highlights an embalming process that is the essence of most media coverage when celebrities die. In order to develop these issues, the study will also deconstruct the visibility of the celebrity corpse in the postmortem image of Marilyn Monroe, Diana’s spectral resurrection in the promotional image of The Queen (Frears, 2006) and examine the aesthetic representation of Jade Goody’s face in-death.
Contrary to Foltyn’s (2008) premise that the corpse has become “the star of the show” (p153) within media representations, this study suggests that when celebrities die, it is generally their living incarnation that assumes centre stage in media coverage. The authentic face of death is primarily displaced in favour of a recognisable famous visage that assumes characteristics of the immortal.
Keywords: death; celebrity; visual culture; recognisable faces; embalming
Journal Article: No Mere Mortal? Re-materialising Michael Jackson in death
Celebrity Studies Vol. 3, No. 2, July 2012, 183–196
In the introduction to the Celebrity Studies forum on Michael Jackson, Bennett notes
that death provides an opportunity to ‘pause and reflect’ (2010, p.231) on the meanings within a celebrity image. This paper examines the media procedure of ‘pausing’ and ‘reflecting’ on Jackson through an analysis of British newspaper coverage in the days following his death on 25 June 2009. Recalling the notion that the reporting of the death of a celebrity is ‘context-specific’ determined by factors such as ‘the manner in which they died and the biography that precedes their death’ (Redmond and Holmes, 2010, p.132), an investigation into newspaper coverage highlights prevailing preoccupations with particular features of Jackson’s identity whilst alive, with reflections on recurring tropes that emerge throughout the reporting. This study also addresses the implications of an untimely death on Jackson’s media image that develops the analysis beyond the process of revisiting and reassessing Jackson into that of reconstruction and the reassembling of his celebrity identity in the immediate wake of his death. This paper therefore seeks to further the debate on approaches to Jackson’s death that initially emerged in the Celebrity Studies forum, and offer, what the editors term ‘a new set of entry points for exploring his cultural significance’ (Redmond and Holmes 2010, p. 133) that will continue to emerge within an academic context now that Jackson has died.