Do we need to decolonise bereavement studies?

Abstract

At this re-launch of the journal Bereavement, we explore the question, ‘Do we need to decolonise bereavement studies?’ We do not offer definitive answers, but rather seek to open up conversations. We briefly explore some of the main debates and explanations of what ‘decolonising’ means. In its broader understandings, this entails questions about the nature of the knowledge that underpins claims to ‘expertise’, since knowledge inevitably reflects the socio-historic position and biography of those who produce it. This raises uncomfortable issues about the ‘universality’ of that knowledge, and how to understand what is shared between human beings, including how to understand experiences of pain and suffering. In addressing the nature of, ‘bereavement studies’, we first consider complexities of language and translation, before observing the heavy domination of the ‘psy’ disciplines in affluent minority worlds, oriented towards individualised, medicalised and interventionist perspectives. We indicate work that seeks to challenge these limitations, including the decolonising of psychiatry itself. We argue the need for such decolonising work to go beyond cross-cultural work originating in affluent minority worlds, beyond interdisciplinarity, and beyond crucial work on equality, diversity and inclusivity. Bereavement, as a field of study and a set of practices, needs to take account of the legacies of complex colonial histories of exploitation and harm that continue to shape the world in general, and in particular, the aftermath of death in the continuing lives of the living. We conclude with some implications for ‘bereavement’ practice, from a UK perspective.

Going Public: Performing Dying in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

“…Within death/bereavement studies of late, there has been growing acknowledgement of the need to decolonise its practices/focus in ways that resist ethnocentrism and recognise the complexity of people’s histories/situations (Hamilton et al, 2022). As indicated above, the instances of public mediated dying discussed in this article, while not representative of the UK population as a whole, are nevertheless representative of instances of public dying that have achieved ‘critical mass’ and been widely reported within/across mainstream UK media.…”

The Aftermath of Death in the Continuing Lives of the Living: Extending ‘Bereavement’ Paradigms through Family and Relational Perspectives

“…These issues are all the more significant in a globalised world where international migration and global neo-colonial systems of power and resources are in play. The need to decolonise bereavement studies is particularly apparent in regard to such questions (Hamilton, Golding and Ribbens McCarthy, 2022).…”

“…Bereavement, also, may be viewed as the loss of a unique relationship, while another cultural perspective may frame it in terms of continuity with ancestors who are significant for the group's survival and well-being over generations (Klass, 2001). (Ribbens McCarthy, 2012:83) The current bereavement paradigms of affluent Minority Worlds -based as they are in disciplines committed to 'individuals' and rooted in colonial histories (Hamilton, Golding and Ribbens McCarthy, 2022) have much to gain by radically expanding notions of relationality, and recognising the individualistic assumptions about death and its continuing aftermath that dominate current approaches to bereavement studies.…”

“…The current bereavement paradigms of affluent Minority Worlds – based as they are in disciplines committed to ‘individuals’ and rooted in colonial histories (Hamilton et al, 2022) – have much to gain by radically expanding notions of relationality, and recognising the individualistic assumptions about death and its continuing aftermath that dominate current approaches to bereavement studies.…”

“…In addressing this gap in current perspectives, we consider the rich potential for considering the aftermath of death through a critical theoretical sociological focus on 'families' and 'relationships', perhaps -we suggest -contributing to a (much needed) paradigm shift that might include a radical theorising of 'relationality'. Such sociologically informed variable relational approaches might also potentially enhance the decolonisation of bereavement studies more broadly (Hamilton, Golding and Ribbens McCarthy, 2022).…”