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While there is a significant interdisciplinary and international literature available on death, dying and bereavement, literature addressing responses to death is dominated by assumptions about individuality, framing 'bereavement' and 'grief' in terms of the inner psychic life of the individual. Scholarly literature tells us little about how the continuing aftermath of death is experienced in the everyday, relational lives of the living. Inspired by research from Majority Worlds, we consider literature that might enable a more 'relational' sociological approach, and explore what that might involve. We set out the potential for family sociology to provide an intrinsically (if variable) relational lens on the aftermath of death, along with examples of radical relational theorising more generally. We argue for a reframing and broadening of the dominant 'bereavement studies' of Minority Worlds towards a much-needed paradigm shift in understanding the continuing aftermath of death in the lives of the living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when the natural death and home deathcare movements are gaining traction both in the UK and elsewhere, this article details an exploratory project on the barriers to and potential for caring for deceased people at home in England. A two-phase study, the paper uses data from a discourse analysis and interviews with deathcare professionals to show that there is limited information online on keeping the deceased person at home, and that participants felt that a lack of awareness was a significant barrier to families being able to make an informed choices about home deathcare. Including poor information provision, the paper identifies five reasons as to why there is a low uptake of home deathcare in England and makes recommendations for how each of these barriers may be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funerals have long been of interest to social scientists. Previous sociological work has examined the relationship between individuality, belief and tradition within funeral services, founded on the assumption that public rituals have psycho-social benefit for organisers and attendees. With the introduction of direct cremation to the UK, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on funeral service attendance in 2020 and 2021, critique of this assumption is now needed. Drawing on interviews with recently bereaved people who organised a direct cremation in late 2017, this article illustrates how compromise, control and consistency are key drivers for not having a funeral service. The article argues that a declining importance in the fate of the body and a move towards 'invite-only' commemorative events represents a waning need for social support offered by a public, communal funeral service. In turn, this indicates a sequestration, or privatisation, of the contemporary funeral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bereaved university students in the UK are an overlooked population in research, policy, and practice. In this article, we examine the implications of this neglect via (1) international literature on bereavement in young people; (2) international literature on bereavement in higher education students; (3) UK and US literature on workplace bereavement and its implications for universities in preparing the future workforce; and (4) findings from a scoping study of 90 UK universities' bereavement support, which identified no shared comprehensive strategy for student bereavement. Our findings show an urgent need for UK universities to address this neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While death features widely in various humanities and some social science disciplines, to date it has not been given the attention it deserves in social policy discourse or research. This paper sets out to begin to rectify that omission. Outlining a range of policy areas affected by death, it argues that budget and outcome-driven priorities in the UK have resulted in the evolution of disconnected and inconsistent policy responses to death. The paper begins by outlining death rates and characteristics of population ageing before focussing on social divisions in death and associated policies. It considers the death and UK social policy agenda before outlining the key characteristics involved in developing a coherent policy response and policy analysis in this field. It argues for a more comprehensive, consistent and joined up policy response to death, and corresponding academic study of death, which acknowledges and supports individuals preparing to die, when they die and those left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]