Why does funeral attendance matter?:  Revisiting 'Configurational Eulogies' in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

Jennifer Riley; Vikki Entwistle; Arnar Arnason; Louise Locock; Rebecca Crozier; Paolo Maccagno; Abi Pattenden

doi:10.1080/13576275.2023.2225029

Why does funeral attendance matter? Revisiting 'Configurational Eulogies' in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

Jennifer Riley^* (Corresponding Author), Vikki Entwistle, Arnar Arnason, Louise Locock, Rebecca Crozier, Paolo Maccagno, Abi Pattenden

^*Corresponding author for this work

Freeman Brothers Funeral Directors

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

This paper uses disruption to norms of funeral attendance experienced in the UK during the COVID19 pandemic as a lens to illuminate why and how funeral attendance can matter. It draws on an extensive qualitative dataset, gathered through semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of 68 individuals who were bereaved and/or worked or volunteered in death care during the COVID-19
pandemic. It first examines interviewees’ concerns about the insufficiency of funerals when gatherings were restricted. Second, it depicts the range of additional and alternative ways people found to pay tribute to the deceased and to offer and seek support when conventional funeral attendance was limited. Third, it explains why, for some, the smaller funerals necessitated by pandemic restrictions were welcome experiences. These findings support a development of Bailey and Walter’s influential theorising concerning ‘configurational eulogies’: while a ‘well-attended’ funeral still matters to many, mourners contribute to configurational eulogies through a diverse and evolving range of activities.
The shifts in funeral gatherings and activities prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as part of dynamic processes of reconfiguring eulogistic repertoires in changing social contexts.

Original language	English
Number of pages	22
Journal	Mortality
Early online date	20 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2225029
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 20 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Open Access via the Taylor & Francis Agreement

Acknowledgements
The authors thank Paul Kefford and Imogen Jones and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

Funding
This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19. Grant number: [ES/V017047/1].

Keywords

Funerals
COVID-19 pandemic
Eulogies
United Kingdom
Funeral attendance

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10.1080/13576275.2023.2225029Licence: CC BY

Riley_etal_M_Why_Does_Funeral_AAM
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mortality on [date of publication], available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI].
Accepted author manuscript, 445 KBLicence: Unspecified
Riley_etal_M_Why_Does_Funeral_VoR
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 770 KBLicence: CC BY

Care in Funerals: Learning from the Ways COVID-19 Disrupted Funeral Provision in the UK, 2021-2022
Riley, J. (Creator), Entwistle, V. (Creator), Arnason, A. (Creator) & Maccagno, P. (Creator), UK Data Service, 2023
DOI: 10.20392/b9ea813a-6d8c-46e5-8e82-bb892459e7df, https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/856027/
Dataset

Cite this

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abstract = "This paper uses disruption to norms of funeral attendance experienced in the UK during the COVID19 pandemic as a lens to illuminate why and how funeral attendance can matter. It draws on an extensive qualitative dataset, gathered through semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of 68 individuals who were bereaved and/or worked or volunteered in death care during the COVID-19pandemic. It first examines interviewees{\textquoteright} concerns about the insufficiency of funerals when gatherings were restricted. Second, it depicts the range of additional and alternative ways people found to pay tribute to the deceased and to offer and seek support when conventional funeral attendance was limited. Third, it explains why, for some, the smaller funerals necessitated by pandemic restrictions were welcome experiences. These findings support a development of Bailey and Walter{\textquoteright}s influential theorising concerning {\textquoteleft}configurational eulogies{\textquoteright}: while a {\textquoteleft}well-attended{\textquoteright} funeral still matters to many, mourners contribute to configurational eulogies through a diverse and evolving range of activities.The shifts in funeral gatherings and activities prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as part of dynamic processes of reconfiguring eulogistic repertoires in changing social contexts. ",

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Why does funeral attendance matter? Revisiting 'Configurational Eulogies' in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Datasets

Care in Funerals: Learning from the Ways COVID-19 Disrupted Funeral Provision in the UK, 2021-2022

Cite this