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
Current research
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: http://www.nzdeathresearchcentre.org.nz, http://www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/people/staffrm.shtml
Professional: President SAANZ http://www.sociology.org.nz
new book: Death in a Global Age, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=320860
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 sociocultural 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 riskavoidance 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.
Keywords: Michael Jackson; stardom; death; identity; embodiment
Cath Davies is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Visual Culture at Cardiff Metropolitan
University. She is responsible for delivering theory provision across a range of courses within
the School of Art and Design. She is also subject leader for the postgraduate programme
‘ MA Death and Visual Culture’. Her research interests include investigating representations
of death and dying within all aspects of Visual Culture. Recent work has concentrated
specifically on cultural constructions of Stardom and Celebrity in relation to death.
CADavies@cardiffmet.ac.uk
'Listening to the Dying: Towards an Anglican Theological
Comprehension via Convergence with the Death Awareness
Movement (1968-2008)'
A practicing expert in the death and dying arena examines the Anglican Church through the
Church of England and The Episcopal Church/US to assess the adequacy of theological,
liturgical, and pastoral responses to the dying as defined and delineated by the Death
Awareness Movement (1968-2008). This original thesis calls for a convergence of these
parallel domains to meet Religious/Spiritual needs at end-of-life. The work uses an
interdisciplinary approach within the overarching domain of practical theology to add a
significant knowledge base for the call to action.
The establishing analysis is the Death Awareness Movement (DAM) with its broad-based
primarily secular scope of death and dying studies spanning four decades, setting
opportunities for the Churches to respond to selective academic and clinical studies focused
on Religious/Spiritual dynamics.
Next is the parallel assembly, review, and analysis of Church documents encompassing
liturgical changes in ministry to the dying. Texts have been dramatically transformed for
this ministry; however, the contemporary revision process was hindered by on-going
subtextual positions, both theological and ecclesial. The newly-coined ‘Lampard Assertion’
suggests a pivotal stance argued here that the Reformation exclusion of prayers for the
dead resulted in a Church dismissal of prayers for the dying.
Following is the convergence of the two bodies of knowledge as an original contribution.
This thesis stands at the nexus of both the DAM and the Church, offering a working juncture
of the two realms. Case narratives exemplify the lead concerns of the dying person, and by
placing themes within both the DAM as well as the Church, the author offers a unique
synthesis for a convergent theology.
The final outcome is the contemporary ars morendi in the form of a newly conceived
applied theology set by the concluding case narrative ‘Teach me to die’. The outcome of this
thesis is its proposed recommendations for the Church.
A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Canterbury Christ Church University
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology
2012
By Megory Anderson
Megory Anderson, PhD, is Executive Director of the Sacred Dying Foundation in San
Francisco, California.
The use of Advance Directives at the end-of-life.
There is an assumption in society that death can be avoided, postponed and resisted and
where death is a medical failure rather than an important aspect of life.
The increasing medicalisation of death and the consequences that has for the dying is an
area which has been greatly discussed. Illich (1974, reprinted, 2003) in his publication the
Medical Nemesis discusses that by renouncing autonomy to medicine in the pursuit of
cheating death can only serve to damage the health of that person and result in a bad
death.
To have a good death would seem to be synonymous with having awareness of death
(Sandman, 2005). Advance directives symbolise a degree of commitment towards
acknowledging patients as partners in care planning and as empowered individuals who are
conscious of their end-of-life. This is an important factor when considering end-of-life care,
as physicians will often misperceive their patients’ preferences (Schneiderman, Kaplan and
Rosenberg et al, 1997). Also physicians will often involve relatives/significant others in these
important discussions at the end-of-life, so do those significant others contribute to the
misperception of the patients preferences?
This study aims to explore the attitudes held by patients who have a terminal diagnosis and
that of their significant others towards the use of Advance Directives to Refuse Treatment at
the End-of-Life (ADRT). The study seeks to investigate what would motivate and drive a
person to form an advance directive in the face of terminal illness, and what influence this
decision has on the significant others. The study would also explore why a person with a
terminal diagnosis may choose not to use an advance directive when considering their end
of life care and whether those attitudes change over time with the development of more
symptoms.
This will be submitted as part of a PhD with the University of Hull. Expected completion date
in October 2015.
Kerry Welch
Senior Lecturer for the University of Lincoln within the school of Health and Social Care.
kwelch@lincoln.ac.uk
Thesis title: Going to Funerals in Contemporary Britain: The Individual, the Family and
the Meeting with Death
Tara Bailey, University of Bath 2012
Abstract
This thesis documents mourners’ experiences of funerals in contemporary Britain, and
considers the implications of these for an understanding of funerals’ social significance. It
represents the first time that experiences of these people, who attend funerals but do not
contribute to their planning, have been taken into account in an analysis of funerals in
contemporary Britain.
The data on which the thesis draws have been generated in collaboration with the MassObservation Project, a long-running, large-scale qualitative writing project based at the
University of Sussex. Participants in the project are self-identified ‘ordinary people’ who
were asked to write in detail about the most recent funeral they had been to, as well as the
best and worst they had ever attended. These data were analysed thematically.
The thesis argues that the three previously identified ‘authorities’ over death and dying of
religion/tradition, professional/expert, and individual/self do not fully account for mourners’
experiences of funerals. By examining the ‘doing’ and ‘displaying’ of family at funerals, the
thesis demonstrates that for mourners, the family constitutes a further authority over the
funeral.
Among other themes, the significance of speakers at the funeral and of mourners’ own
authenticity are drawn on to then argue that Davies’ theorisation of funerals as ‘words against
death’ needs to take account not only of what is done at funerals but who does it; that funerals
are also ‘people and their relationships against death’.