Governing Death and Loss: Empowerment, Involvement and Participation - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199586179 ISBN 13: 9780199586172

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 2011

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Steve Conway is a Senior Lecturer in Research Methods in the School of Health & Social Care at Teesside University. Steve has a background in social science. From 1990 to 2002 he was a Lecturer in Social Science at the University of Lincoln.
Between 2002 and 2004 Steve was a Research Manager in the Community Evaluation Research Group, Social Futures Institute at Teesside University. His primary research interests are in health governance including death, dying, loss and care, social attitudes to ageing, illness and death amongst older people, and health inequalities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199586179
• ISBN 13: 9780199586172
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 170
• Editor: Conway Steve