Intersections of (infra)structural violence and cultural inclusion: The geopolitics of minority cemeteries and crematoria provision

Abstract

Building on embodied and de-colonial approaches to geopolitics, this paper examines the relationship between forms of governance in municipal cemetery and crematorium provision and the needs of established minorities, arguing that inadequate infrastructure and services can constitute harm. Crucially, it is contended that forms of governance impact not only on the living, but also on perceptions of the wellbeing of the dead. Grounded in a study of four towns in England and Wales, the paper identifies firstly how intersectional identity fundamentally shapes people's experiences of deathscape governance; secondly, the possibilities of infrastructural benefits of inclusive services; and thirdly, the harms done by non-inclusive forms of governance, implicit territoriality and inadequate infrastructure. This is evidenced in the negative impact of poor municipal cemetery organisation and management on specific minority groups, such as inadequate burial space, high burial costs, hindrances to timely rituals, and reduced access to services as a result of government austerity measures; as well as protracted local planning processes. The conclusion calls for a wider conceptualisation of necropolitics, based on a critical-feminist-decolonial geopolitics of deathscapes in multicultural societies, and offers insights for the practical governance of inclusive cemeteries and crematoria.

Death in the Peripheries: Planning for Minority Ethnic Groups beyond “the City”

“…Funeral directors play an important role acting as significant mediators and interlocuters, and these findings are supported within our own research (see Maddrell et al 2021). However, our focus is on an exploration of the context of established norms in which decisions are made and the barriers to bodily disposal for minorities.…”

“…These decisions are dependent on the capacity and willingness of the national and local state to accommodate their needs. This includes the funeral rites for an individual but also spans the certification of death and moves through decisions about the final place of bodily remains (see Maddrell et al, 2021). The political scientist Osman Balkan's (2016, 149) study of Alevi Muslim undertakers in Berlin situates their important role in mediating between families and the German state at the point of death:…”

“…This journal has addressed important questions of planning for a diversity of ages and life stages and in relation to ethnicity, race, and anti-racism (see, for example, Greenlee et al 2018;Sweet and Etienne 2011;Umemoto 2001;Warner and Zhang 2019;Williams 2020). However, a growing number of studies have highlighted the inherent racial and ethnic politics of death, including the erasure of cemeteries in the United States and Europe, and the inability for religious communities to follow rituals in Britain and Europe (see Ansari 2007;Lemke 2020;Miller and Rivera 2006;Maddrell et al 2021).…”

Cemeteries and crematoria, forgotten public space in multicultural Europe. An agenda for inclusion and citizenship

“…Implicit and explicit processes of majority territorialisation can be evident in cemeteries. This can be seen in the presence of majority iconography such as statues and religious symbols in the built environment, and structural factors, such as grave reuse and services bound by majority norms of the Monday to Friday 'working week', as well as the literal spatial marginalisation of minority faiths in peripheral spaces within cemeteries (Maddrell et al, 2018(Maddrell et al, , 2021. Attention to any dissonance within cemeteries-crematoria provides a lens through which to identify tensions in wider public spaces within specific national and local contexts.…”

“…This co‐presence of seemingly antithetical uses and practices (e.g., funerals, grave rituals, running and dog walking) can in some cases cause tension between users who attribute different meanings and norms to cemeteries‐crematoria (Maddrell et al, 2018; Rugg & Parsons, 2018). Public spaces per se are economically, politically and culturally ‘charged’ (Listerborn, 2015), and the spaces and practices within cemeteries‐crematoria carry additional symbolic, emotional‐affective and/or religious charge (Maddrell et al, 2018, 2018). In the context of multicultural and post‐secular societies in north western Europe, diverse residents converge on cemeteries as shared public spaces for the disposal of the remains and remembrance of their dead, with varied rituals and practices.…”