Bodies and ceremonies: is the UK funeral industry still fit for purpose?

Abstract

Funerals may be defined as the ritual or ceremonial disposal of a body; the two essential components are therefore a body and a ceremony/ritual. The UK funeral industry's structure revolves around those who manage the body rather than the ceremony. This structure, in which the client contracts with a funeral director who subcontracts the funeral ceremony to a priest or celebrant, was fit for purpose in the nineteenth century when most of the family's choices concerned hardware (coffins, carriages, horses, etc) for the body's containment and transport. It may no longer be fit, however, in the twenty first century when, for many families, the major choices concern how to personalise the ceremony. In theory, it might therefore now be more appropriate for at least some families first to contract with a celebrant, who would then subcontract the body's care, storage and transport, reversing who is contractor and who is subcontractor. In practice, factors on both the demand and supply side keep the industry's present structure in place. Though the past 25 years have seen much innovation, conservative innovations such as celebrancy and green burial that accept the industry's existing structure have proved more successful than radical innovations that challenge it. This hinders measures to reduce funeral costs and funeral poverty.

The State of the UK funeral industry

“…Historically, it has had far less direct, operational dealings with central government than most, if not all, services providing care and welfare. In many practical and operational respects, today’s funeral industry remains closer to its 19th century forebearer than not (Walter, 2017). However, two points deserve closer consideration here.…”

“…What remains relatively overlooked in analyses of the UK funeral industry, however, is a more thoroughgoing conceptualisation of the State that explicitly seeks to locate, and explicate, manifestations of State power in this context. We respond to this by synthesising points of ‘cross-over’ within comparative studies of funeral organization and political economy ( inter alia Parsons, 1999; 2018; Cottle and Keys, 2004; Walter, 2005; 2017), as well as State support for funerals (Woodthorpe et al, 2013; Valentine and Woodthorpe, 2014), and offer an explicitly State-focussed classification of the UK funeral industry.…”

“…Funeral expenditure is also disproportionately higher among working-classes and religious communities with specific ritualistic requirements (Walter, 2005: 177). Some have pointed to a certain materialist sentimentality among economically poorer families who often arrange more elaborate funerals than the middle-classes (Walter, 2017: 199). Creative personalisation and higher expenditure on the ‘good send-off’ have been linked with a desire for ‘respectability’, a term broadly inferring that certain cultures of death are informed by conspicuous consumption and managing localised social status (Strange, 2003: 145).…”

“…Creative personalisation and higher expenditure on the ‘good send-off’ have been linked with a desire for ‘respectability’, a term broadly inferring that certain cultures of death are informed by conspicuous consumption and managing localised social status (Strange, 2003: 145). Certain local practices may lend persuasive weight to this idea, such as when coffins are slowly driven through detours of local neighbourhoods in a glass-sided hearse (Walter, 2017: 195).…”

“…Other circumstances in which the State will directly and operationally interact with the funeral industry include Public Health Funerals, which are statutorily provided by Local Authorities under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and are provided where there is no family or friends to arrange and pay for the funeral (Woodthorpe et al, 2013). They have historically been stigmatised and referred to as ‘pauper funerals’ (Walter, 2017: 205) and while they are not our focus here, they are increasing in number. The Local Government Association recently expressed concern after a Freedom of Information request revealed that 3,800 such funerals took place in 2018 costing £5.4m (BBC News, 2019).…”