Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement

Critical Approaches to Death Dying and Bereavement is the first of its kind to examine key topics in death, dying and bereavement through a critical lens, highlighting how the understanding and experience of death can vary considerably, based on social, cultural, historical, political, and medical contexts. It looks at the complex ways in which death and dying are managed, from the political level down to end of life care, and the inequalities that surround and impact experiences of death, dying and bereavement.

Readers are introduced to key theories such as the medicalisation, as well as contemporary issues, such as social movements, pandemics, and assisted dying. The book stresses how death is not only a biological process or event, but rather shaped by a range of intersecting factors. Issues of inequalities in health, inequities in support, and intersectional analyses are to the fore, and each chapter is dedicated to an issue that has interdisciplinary resonance, thus showcasing the wider socio-cultural and political factors that impact this time of life.

It is valuable reading for scholars in thanatology and death studies, and for those in related fields such as sociology of health, medical and social anthropology and interdisciplinary social science courses.