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The Social Construction of Death

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Nico Carpentier editor Leen Van Brussel editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Palgrave Macmillan

Published:5th Aug '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Social Construction of Death cover

This is an open access book, the electronic versions are freely accessible online.


Well-established scholars from a variety of disciplines - including sociology, anthropology, media and cultural studies, and political sciences – use the social construction of death and dying to analyse a wide variety of meaning-making practices in societal fields such as ethics, politics, media, medicine and family.Chapter 12 of this book is open access under a CC BY license. 
Well-established scholars from a variety of disciplines - including sociology, anthropology, media and cultural studies, and political sciences – use the social construction of death and dying to analyse a wide variety of meaning-making practices in societal fields such as ethics, politics, media, medicine and family.

“This volume adds to that progress with a collection of 13 wide-ranging and admirably conducted studies into various aspects of death and dying, mourning and loss, in both situated and mediated dimensions of our engagement with them. Social constructionist/ivist thanatology is one particular perspective among a number of others relevant to the field, but here it is shown to be a wide-ranging, rigorous, and cogent approach which contributes significantly to its theoretical constitution.” (European Journal of Communication, Vol. 32 (1), 2017)

“Van Brussel and Carpentier take the readers into a world that heightens our understanding of the local and distinctive nature of constructions of death and dying and the transactional, subjective nature of our knowledge development, and knowing in death and dying. This book strengthens the social constructionist theoretical underpinnings of death and dying and, at the same time, positions death and dying as central to social constructionist perspectives.” (Cheryl-Anne Cait, Omega, Journal of Death and Dying, December, 2016)

“It gives a good balance of academic voices, both developing and experienced, along with ideas you would hope for in a book on death that includes the tough subjects around killing and dying in war and peace. As a result, it is a text you could return to and use for quick reference on a variety of death-related topics that cover meaning-making practices in societal fields such as media, medicine, ethics, politics and family.” (Judith Wester, Mortality, Vol. 20 (3), June, 2015)

"The Social Construction of Death: Interdisciplinary Perspectives provides the reader with a very interesting and valuable interdisciplinary study of death through social constructionism. The edited volume is a display of how the use of a single paradigm (in this case social constructionism/-ivism) can be a valuable way to carry out interdisciplinary research." - Communications (2015)

ISBN: 9781137391902

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 4679g

278 pages