Death in a Global Age [Hardcover]

Attitudes towards death are shaped by our social worlds. This book explores how beliefs, practices and representations of dying and death continue to evolve and adapt in response to changing global societies. Introducing students to debates around grief, religion and life expectancy, this is a clear guide to a complex field for all sociologists.

Introduction: Death is Integral to Life.- Perspectives and Theories on Death and Dying.- The Social Organisation of Dying and Death: A New Paradigm Emerges.- Patterns in Life and Death: Shifting Demographic Trends Re-Shape Life Expectancies.- The Death Industries: Bespoke My Death.- Funerary Rites: A Decent Send-Off.- Grief.- Mass Death: Global Imaginaries.- Religion: The De-Secularisation of Spiritual Life and Death?.- Representations Of Mortality: Watching Real Death Is Good?.- Conclusion: Death in a Global Age.

RUTH MCMANUS is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She teaches on the sociology of death, dying and bereavement and is widely published in the field.

How do beliefs and rituals surrounding death vary depending on our culture? In what ways do different societies choose to mourn or celebrate their dead? Are attitudes and approaches towards dying adjusting in response to processes of globalization?

From changes in life expectancy to grieving online, Death in a global age explores a wide range of issues related to our experiences and expectations of dying in contemporary societies. It considers how beliefs, practices and representations of death are adapting in response to fast-evolving forces of globalization, including the media, technology, religion and consumption. By investigating the relationship between death and society on a truly international scale, the book gives new insight in to the ways in which the social world helps us to make sense of death, dying and our own mortality.

With fascinating explanatil“I