- 15 Southcot Place
Lyncombe Hill
Bath
BA2 4PE
UK - 1225314833
Tony Walter
University of Bath, Centre for Death & Society, Faculty Member
The article asks whether disasters that destroy life but leave the material infrastructure relatively intact tend to prompt communal coping focussing on loss, while disasters that destroy significant material infrastructure tend to prompt... more
The article asks whether disasters that destroy life but leave the material infrastructure relatively intact tend to prompt communal coping focussing on loss, while disasters that destroy significant material infrastructure tend to prompt coping through restoration / re-building. After comparing memorials to New Zealand's Christchurch earthquake and Pike River mine disasters, we outline circumstances in which collective restorative endeavour may be grassroots, organised from above, or manipulated, along with limits to effective restoration. We conclude that bereavement literature may need to take restoration more seriously, while disaster literature may need to take loss more seriously.
Research Interests:
Bereavement following a drug- or alcohol-related death has been largely neglected in research and service provision, despite its global prevalence and potentially devastating consequences for those concerned. Whilst researchers have drawn... more
Bereavement following a drug- or alcohol-related death has been largely neglected in research and service provision, despite its global prevalence and potentially devastating consequences for those concerned. Whilst researchers have drawn attention to the suffering experienced by families worldwide in coping with a member’s substance misuse, this article highlights the predicament of families bereaved following a substance misuse death. To this end, it reviews literature drawn from addiction and bereavement research that sheds light on this type of loss. The article also considers how general bereavement theory may illuminate bereavement following a substance misuse death. We argue that available frames of reference reflect not only a lack of focus on this type of loss but also a tendency to reproduce rather than interrogate normative assumptions of bereavement following “bad deaths.” The article concludes by considering how findings from existing literature can guide future research.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
For over two thousand years, ethical systems in the West have relied on post-mortem rewards and punishments. Plato separated hell, purgatory and paradise into geographical ‘regions’ and articulated concrete steps of bodily punishment... more
For over two thousand years, ethical systems in the West have relied on post-mortem rewards and punishments. Plato separated hell, purgatory and paradise into geographical ‘regions’ and articulated concrete steps of bodily punishment after death. He did this specifically to save the state the need physically to coerce people: ‘hell and heaven were alternatives to police, prisons, torture chambers and concentration camps on earth’ (Anthony, 1973, p. 121; see also Arendt, 1961, pp. 111, 130).
Research Interests: Philosophy and Eternity
Research Interests:
This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 24, pp. 16532–16534, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd, with revisions made by the Editor.
Research Interests:
Funerals led by a celebrant not representing a faith community are rapidly increasing in England. This article argues that these ‘life-centred’ funerals have an implicit theology; like Christian funerals, but in different ways, they... more
Funerals led by a celebrant not representing a faith community are rapidly increasing in England. This article argues that these ‘life-centred’ funerals have an implicit theology; like Christian funerals, but in different ways, they invite judgement, myth and hope. How should churches respond to this competition? Imitation is problematic, because the ‘life-centred’ approach is far more than a mere technique to be bolted on to the Christian funeral. The article concludes by sketching some unique resources churches have that cannot be matched by the new breed of celebrants.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT
Research Interests:
This chapter examines three trends. First, I look at trends in life expectancy, in how long people take to die and how visible dying people are. Second, I will trace the trend in the modern era for a medical understanding of death to... more
This chapter examines three trends. First, I look at trends in life expectancy, in how long people take to die and how visible dying people are. Second, I will trace the trend in the modern era for a medical understanding of death to replace a religious understanding. Third, I ask how the modern ‘conquest of nature’, including the control of many killer diseases, is related to changing concepts of time and eternity, and how these in turn are related to the cultures of modernism and postmodernism.
Research Interests:
The article outlines six sets of questions that help identify the assumptions about grief held within any culture, including our own; asking such questions can assist bereavement care both within a culture and across cultures. The... more
The article outlines six sets of questions that help identify the assumptions about grief held within any culture, including our own; asking such questions can assist bereavement care both within a culture and across cultures. The questions cover the obligations mourners feel, who should be mourned, what should be done with the dead, what should be done with emotions, the inclusion or exclusion of mourners from society, and the role of religion.
Research Interests:
In this chapter, I compare and contrast three different kinds of death. The first I term traditional and it corresponds to Aries (1981) ‘tame death’ which he illustrates in the death of an old French peasant in times past: She contracted... more
In this chapter, I compare and contrast three different kinds of death. The first I term traditional and it corresponds to Aries (1981) ‘tame death’ which he illustrates in the death of an old French peasant in times past: She contracted a summer cholera. After four days she asked to see the village priest, who came and wanted to give her the last rites. ‘Not yet, M. le cure; I’ll let you know when the time comes. Two days later: ‘Go and tell M. le cure to bring me Extreme Unction’. (Aries 1981: 10, quoting Guitton 1941: 14)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
White English people are not prone to wearing their emotions on their sleeves, and they are expected to bear suffering with a stiff upper lip. English men, in particular, are not supposed to weep and hug each other — except on the... more
White English people are not prone to wearing their emotions on their sleeves, and they are expected to bear suffering with a stiff upper lip. English men, in particular, are not supposed to weep and hug each other — except on the football field. Does this emotional reserve lead to a particularly English way of managing grief? In this chapter, I identify six different social norms which govern the English way of grief. Since these norms can conflict with one another, my analysis provides a framework for looking at change as well as at continuity. (By ‘the English’ I refer primarily to those of English descent, living in England; the British way of death is considerably more varied than the English.2)
Research Interests:
... Queen of Hearts Lucy Biddle and Tony Walter ... To an extent, people brought these as emblems that they were mourners, rather like the black ribbons that the tennis players Andre Agassi and Greg Rudedski wore for her at the US Open... more
... Queen of Hearts Lucy Biddle and Tony Walter ... To an extent, people brought these as emblems that they were mourners, rather like the black ribbons that the tennis players Andre Agassi and Greg Rudedski wore for her at the US Open (The Times 3 September 1997). ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Specialist palliative care, within hospices in particular, has historically led and set the standard for caring for patients at end of life. The focus of this care has been mostly for patients with cancer. More recently, health and social... more
Specialist palliative care, within hospices in particular, has historically led and set the standard for caring for patients at end of life. The focus of this care has been mostly for patients with cancer. More recently, health and social care services have been developing equality of care for all patients approaching end of life. This has mostly been done in the context of a service delivery approach to care whereby services have become increasingly expert in identifying health and social care need and meeting this need with professional services. This model of patient centred care, with the impeccable assessment and treatment of physical, social, psychological and spiritual need, predominantly worked very well for the latter part of the 20th century. Over the last 13 years, however, there have been several international examples of community development approaches to end of life care. The patient centred model of care has limitations when there is a fundamental lack of integrated ...
Research Interests: Social Change, Palliative Care, Health Policy, Humans, Great Britain, and 10 morePublic health systems and services research, Neoplasms, Psychology of Power, Community Networks, Interdisciplinary Communication, Terminal care, Cooperative Behavior, Personal autonomy, Delivery of Health Care, and Community health services
How may communities be mobilised to help someone dying at home? This conceptual article outlines the thinking behind an innovative compassionate community project being developed at Weston-super-Mare, UK. In this project, a health... more
How may communities be mobilised to help someone dying at home? This conceptual article outlines the thinking behind an innovative compassionate community project being developed at Weston-super-Mare, UK. In this project, a health professional mentors the dying person and their carer to identify and match: (a) the tasks that need to be done and (b) the members of their social network who might help with these tasks. Network members may subsequently join a local volunteer force to assist others who are network poor. Performing practical tasks may be more acceptable to some family, friends and neighbours than having to engage in a conversation about dying, and provides a familiarity with dying that is often lacking in modern societies, so in this model, behavioural change precedes attitudinal change. The scheme rejects a service delivery model of care in favour of a community development model, but differs from community development schemes in which the mentor is a volunteer rather th...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The article outlines the issues that the internet presents to death studies. Part 1 describes a range of online practices that may affect dying, the funeral, grief and memorialization, inheritance and archaeology; it also summarizes the... more
The article outlines the issues that the internet presents to death studies. Part 1 describes a range of online practices that may affect dying, the funeral, grief and memorialization, inheritance and archaeology; it also summarizes the kinds of research that have been done in these fields. Part 2 argues that these new online practices have implications for, and may be illuminated by, key concepts in death studies: the sequestration (or separation from everyday life) of death and dying, disenfranchisement of grief, private grief, social death, illness and grief narratives, continuing bonds with the dead, and the presence of the dead in society. In particular, social network sites can bring dying and grieving out of both the private and public realms and into the everyday life of social networks beyond the immediate family, and provide an audience for once private communications with the dead.
Research Interests:
The professions in the West are undergoing unprecedented calls for greater accountability and efficiency in service delivery. This article links these changes to recent developments in institutional theory that emphasize shifting salience... more
The professions in the West are undergoing unprecedented calls for greater accountability and efficiency in service delivery. This article links these changes to recent developments in institutional theory that emphasize shifting salience of technical over symbolic organizational environments. The analysis of the adaptations to these changes in French and British healthcare, Canadian education and US managerial consulting suggest that country-specific responses to neoliberal institutional pressures are highly path dependent. The article concludes by suggesting a research program for the future study of the cross-national responses of professional groups to neoliberal economic and political ideologies.
Research Interests:
In western societies influenced by Christianity, women are more religious than men on virtually every measure. If religion is rooted (as Marx suggested) in econ- omic vulnerability, can the religiosity of women be explained by economic or... more
In western societies influenced by Christianity, women are more religious than men on virtually every measure. If religion is rooted (as Marx suggested) in econ- omic vulnerability, can the religiosity of women be explained by economic or social circumstances? Or what about the ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Page 1. Book Reviews 1231 up her interpretation of the agency of the possessed women's bodies in both plays by concluding that (T)he play of possession constitutes the instrumental agency of the possessed person whose ...
Research Interests:
Abstract The article outlines four ways that religions interact with a society’s dominant practices for dying, funerals, grief and mourning. Examples are given of religious promotion of practices that may eventually become normative for... more
Abstract The article outlines four ways that religions interact with a society’s dominant practices for dying, funerals, grief and mourning. Examples are given of religious promotion of practices that may eventually become normative for society; of religious opposition to a society’s death practices; of subsequent accommodation, whether by mourners or their religious leaders; and of how culture may compensate if a dominant religion fails to provide adequate rites for mourning. At a personal level, when religious requirements and societal practices do not mesh, and in mixed-religion families whose members disagree over what rites are necessary, grief can become complicated for both individuals and families.
Research Interests:
Some 21st-century mourners describe the deceased as becoming an angel. Using published research, along with opportunist and anecdotal sources, the following questions are explored: who becomes an angel? Who addresses them as angels? What... more
Some 21st-century mourners describe the deceased as becoming an angel. Using published research, along with opportunist and anecdotal sources, the following questions are explored: who becomes an angel? Who addresses them as angels? What do once-human angels do? What are they? Where and when are they encountered? And in what sense are they believed in? Once-human angels are found in cemeteries, in memorial tattoos, at the deathbed, but mainly online—both internet and angel are mediums or messengers linking this world and the next. Unlike passive souls cut off in heaven from the living, angels have agency, (a) continuing their earthly activities in heaven and (b) looking after those on earth who still need their care and guidance. The once-human angel thus expresses a continuing bond between the living and the dead, particularly important for younger mourners who may live many decades before joining the deceased in heaven. This notion is taught by neither churches nor popular culture...
Research Interests:
There has been a welcome trend in most churches to encourage members to play a variety of parts alongside or in place of professional ministers. Why not also at funerals? Those responsible for arranging the content of funeral services... more
There has been a welcome trend in most churches to encourage members to play a variety of parts alongside or in place of professional ministers. Why not also at funerals? Those responsible for arranging the content of funeral services need to think carefully about the ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... On bereavement: The culture of grief. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Walter, Tony (b. 1948, d. ----. PUBLISHER: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): SUBJECT(S): Death;Bereavement; Thanatology; Social aspects. DISCIPLINE: No... more
... On bereavement: The culture of grief. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Walter, Tony (b. 1948, d. ----. PUBLISHER: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): SUBJECT(S): Death;Bereavement; Thanatology; Social aspects. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...
Research Interests:
... On bereavement: The culture of grief. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Walter, Tony (b. 1948, d. ----. PUBLISHER: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): SUBJECT(S): Death;Bereavement; Thanatology; Social aspects. DISCIPLINE: No... more
... On bereavement: The culture of grief. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Walter, Tony (b. 1948, d. ----. PUBLISHER: ... VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): SUBJECT(S): Death;Bereavement; Thanatology; Social aspects. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. ...
Research Interests:
A BSTRACT The dominant model found in contemporary bereavement literature sees grief as a working through of emotion, the eventual goal being to move on and live without the deceased. This article challenges this model by analysing the... more
A BSTRACT The dominant model found in contemporary bereavement literature sees grief as a working through of emotion, the eventual goal being to move on and live without the deceased. This article challenges this model by analysing the own author's own ...
Research Interests:
. Despite their personal and social significance, life-course transition rituals (marking, for example, birth, marriage, death) have received scant attention in discourse analysis. Yet radical changes in them, ...
Research Interests:
Following a loss, the relation between letting go and keeping hold is complex and often paradoxical. Bereaved people may search and cling before finally letting go; but it is now coming to be recognized that it may also be necessary to... more
Following a loss, the relation between letting go and keeping hold is complex and often paradoxical. Bereaved people may search and cling before finally letting go; but it is now coming to be recognized that it may also be necessary to let go before there can be a genuine ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the past two decades there has been an extraordinary growth in pilgrimages to overseas war graves. This article seeks to ask what this means for the bereaved and for veterans. Are they somehow making up for the funeral that, for them,... more
In the past two decades there has been an extraordinary growth in pilgrimages to overseas war graves. This article seeks to ask what this means for the bereaved and for veterans. Are they somehow making up for the funeral that, for them, never Tony Walter was? And how does ...
Research Interests:
A Basic Income scheme would phase out as many reliefs and allowances against personal income tax, and as many existing state-financed cash benefits as practicable; and would replace them with a Basic Income (BI) paid automatically to each... more
A Basic Income scheme would phase out as many reliefs and allowances against personal income tax, and as many existing state-financed cash benefits as practicable; and would replace them with a Basic Income (BI) paid automatically to each and every man, woman and child. Basic Income would enhance individual freedom, and would help to prevent poverty, to end the poverty and unemployment, traps, to reduce unemployment and to create a less divided society.
Research Interests:
The article analyses how potentially conflicting frames of grief and family operate in a number of English funerals. The data come from the 2010 Mass-Observation directive "Going to Funerals" which asked its panel of... more
The article analyses how potentially conflicting frames of grief and family operate in a number of English funerals. The data come from the 2010 Mass-Observation directive "Going to Funerals" which asked its panel of correspondents to write about the most recent funeral they had attended. In their writings, grief is displayed through conventional understandings of family. Drawing on Randall Collins, we show how the funeral stratifies mourners into family or nonfamily, a stratification accomplished-by family and nonfamily-through both outward display and inner feeling. The funerals described were more about a very traditional notion of family than about grief; family trumped grief, or at least provided the frame through which grief could be written about; and perceptions of "family" prompted emotions which in turn defined family. The funerals were portrayed as a distinct arena privileging family over the fluid and varied personal attachments highlighted in both th...
Research Interests: Psychology and OMEGA
Research Interests: Criminology and Law
Where do people feel closest to those they have lost? This article explores how continuing bonds with a deceased person can be rooted in a particular place or places. Some conceptual resources are sketched, namely continuing bonds, place... more
Where do people feel closest to those they have lost? This article explores how continuing bonds with a deceased person can be rooted in a particular place or places. Some conceptual resources are sketched, namely continuing bonds, place attachment, ancestral places, home, reminder theory, and loss of place. The authors use these concepts to analyze interview material with seven Swedes and five Britons who often thought warmly of the deceased as residing in a particular place and often performing characteristic actions. The destruction of such a place, by contrast, could create a troubling, haunting absence, complicating the deceased's absent-presence.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT