Figure 4 - uploaded by Anders Gustavsson
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"Light a candle for my angel child," wrote Ehline's mother on October 31, 2009 (www.minneavehline.blogg.se).
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Memorial websites on the Internet constitute a new form for expressing grief and for remembering deceased relatives and friends. In my sample of memorial websites, I have studied those that are open to the public. Such memorial sites have had an explosive development during the 2000s. The messages become a virtual, social meeting place by giving mo...
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... I can see no negative consequences for science in such a development. 2 This touches upon my research within a network which studies conceptions and rituals connected with dying and death (Gustavsson 2013). It is possible to obtain a printed version of the different volumes. ...
During the last two years of Covid pandemic we have seen the issues related to digitalization, Open Access, and Open Data (meaning open access to research results and research data) become more salient. Scientists have been unable to access archives and libraries in person, or to meet colleagues and students in physical meetings in the form of seminars, conferences or congresses. Distance has become the key word. Digital contacts have become the norm that shapes the scientific working day. In this subjectively oriented article, I intend to describe and comment on the new situation scientists have to face. These comments are based on my own background as a scientist since the 1970s. Scientists need to recognize the new opportunities that are offered by the new digital tools. This became particularly important in the conditions of the sudden pandemic outbreak in the early 2020s. What can we, scientists, learn from this development?
... Frågorna om Open Data diskuterades i en del av inläggen. 2 Det har gällt mina forskningar inom ett nätverk som utforskar föreställningar och ritualer i samband med döende och dödsfall (t.ex.Gustavsson 2013). Det går att beställa en tryckt version av de olika volymerna. ...
... On contemporary pet graves, crosses have been increasingly replaced by the use of the angel figure -a feature common to grieving for humans and pets (Fig. 4). The popularity of angels has been interpreted in the context of the new religiosity or spirituality, especially the rise of New Age thinking and the idea that angels exist all around us and regularly intervene in our lives (Gustavsson, 2013;Utriainen, 2014). The latter two phenomena have been seen as substitutes for traditional Christianity, while offering alternatives to contemporary secularism in the modern world. ...
... The cemeteries also reflect the rise of new spirituality through the use of angel figures and references to holistic belief in an afterlife for pets and an eventual reunion between pets and their owners -curiously resembling the beliefs of Victorian pet owners struggling between orthodox Christianity and the cruelties of scientific progress (Howell, 2002). Gustavsson (2013) notes that in Sweden, decorations at pet graves generally express a blurring of the human-animal boundary, in that pets are addressed in much the same way as humans, including religious discourse. Our study supports this interpretation, and we suggest that the same applies to pet cemeteries in Finland. ...
In recent years, the common and mundane dying has begun to take place in the public space of the Internet. Among the blogs about food, fashion, travel, and other joyful aspects of life, blogs about severe disease and dying have appeared. The aim of this article is to describe some characteristic features of a sample of cancer blogs and to discuss them in the light of Zygmunt Bauman's theory of the rationalization of death in modernity and theories about networked media, especially the theories about "affective labor" and "ambient intimacy" by McCosker, Darcy, and Pfister. It will then be argued that an affective communication is performed in and through these cancer blogs, where not only language but also the deficiencies of language-and what is called shared ineffability-might be valuable and meaningful (although not unproblematic) as part of a late modern approach to death, and in the practicing of the art of dying.
Pets or companion animals are a feature of many households and people are increasingly considering animals to be family members. After a companion animal dies, many people now wish take this new view of human-companion kinship into account and seek a way of meaningfully marking the death of their companion. This article outlines differing forms of memorialisation rites and practices for companion animals from around the world, and discusses some implications for those who provide medical, psychological and veterinarian services.
Bereavement as a result of pet or animal companion loss is a common experience but despite the evident bond between humans and their animal companions there is relatively little provision for bereaved owners. This article presents an overview of grief for animal companions and current approaches to bereavement support for bereaved owners. It presents a new resource developed by the author that helps vets introduce the topic with their bereaved clients and signpost them to further sources of information and support.
