Governing Death and Loss: Empowerment, Involvement and Participation

Political, economic, social, cultural and technological changes have led to profound transformations in the ways that death and loss are perceived and managed in contemporary society. Over the last few decades, the long term shift to chronic illness as a major causal factor has significantly
increased the time scale of dying. Most people die in institutions and 'care' is typically medical. Many communities and ordinary citizens now relinquish control and involvement to experts in the last stages of life.

At global and local levels, however, new arrangements are emerging to govern the changing face of death, and a reorientation model is being developed to counter claims of the 'creeping medicalisation' of death and dying. With an international authorship and scope, this book illustrates the
interlinking nature of society, death and loss, and it gives examples of governance that promotes the empowerment, participation and the increasing need for the involvement of ordinary people and communities in differing social and cultural contexts.

Chapters come from collaborations of academics and practitioners in end of life care - from sociologists, anthropologists or the arts but also from nursing, social work, or medicine. The result is a reflective, academic and practical discussion of the outline of the problem we face in the
contemporary governance of death, and an exploration of the critical, theoretical and practice-based ways forward for us all.


Author: Steve Conway
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/30/2011
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.70w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780199586172

About the Author

Steve Conway teaches on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supervises masters and doctoral research in his position as a Senior Lecturer in the Research Methods Subject Group in the School of Health & Social Care at Teesside University.
Steve has a background in social science. After his first degree, he worked as a contract researcher within a wide range of settings including a nursing department within a local health authority, higher education and the cooperative movement. He then gained a permanent lectureship in social science at the University of Lincoln where he worked between 1990 and 2002.
From 2002-2004, Steve was a Research Fellow/Research Manager in the Community Evaluation Research Group, Social Futures Institute at Teesside University, where he managed a range of evaluation projects for several local Sure Start programmes in Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland.

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