the individual is prioritised as the expert in a particular situation, that individual can make choices from a
vast range of options, including those that may be characterised as traditional or modern. Thus an
individual may die in a hospital cared for by the medical experts of modernity and this may be followed by
a traditional burial with a funeral conducted by a representative of a traditional Christian church with a neo-
modern focus on talking about the person who died. Social and cultural practices for handling death are not
free floating any more than are the decisions that individuals within a given social setting make (Walter,
1994).
1.4 This paper explores the issue of whether early twenty-first century Scotland offers a location and time
where the reflexive individual is made manifest in the organisation and conduct of funerals. Beginning with
a discussion of relevant aspects of reflexive individuality the paper then moves on to describe the research
on which it is based. The article considers two specific funerals organised by widowers for their deceased
wives. One of these funerals took place on the Isle of Lewis, the other in Edinburgh, and both are
described in comparison with the usual funeral format for each location. Consideration is given to the
degree of reflexivity exhibited by each widower and the paper concludes with a discussion of the issues
raised.
The reflexive individual
2.1 The reflexive individual is a person who must take full responsibility for the creation and maintenance
of his or her own identity. This means that the individual must constantly reflect upon his or her life and
make decisions about what kind of a person to be, what work to do, where to live and with whom, as well
as what goals to aim for and how to achieve them (Giddens 1991). The notion of individuals thinking about
their lives and making decisions based upon their own reflexive processes is neither new nor unique to
inhabitants of late modernity. However, the degree to which such reflection is necessary in a late modern
era and the way in which all the inhabitants of such a social setting must engage in the reflexive process is
new (Mouzelis 1999). In times of modernity individuals had the authority of institutions such as the Church,
the state or the family to draw upon and these provided a baseline from which the individual went into the
world. Despite having the capacity to reflect upon their lives, individuals knew who they were because, for
example, they were born into a family in a particular area of the country, they went to school and later
worked in the same locality, and they attended services held by the national church on a Sunday.
Individuals, particularly those with limited resources, had little opportunity to change their life situations
even if they desired to, but late modernity lays different claims upon individuals. In a late modern era
individuals have no option but to make decisions about their life situations and make changes to their lives
on the basis of those decisions. Choices must be made without the assistance of outside authorities,
because the traditional authorities are no longer as relevant, and individuals are increasingly forced back
upon their own resources, except at times of dire need (Giddens 1991).
2.2 The institutions of modernity, however, do continue to exist and for some individuals they continue to
be important. The Church of Scotland is the national church in Scotland and, although its membership has
fallen in recent years (Brown 2001) it currently claims to have 500,000 members and 1,200 ministers (The
Church of Scotland 2011). The relationship that church members have with the institutional church may
have changed over time, but the traditional institution itself survives (Davie 1994). Institutions such as the
Church of Scotland are still of key importance when an individual is confronted by death (Giddens 1991),
but it is not immediately apparent how traditional institutions work alongside the institutions of late
modernity (Taylor-Gooby 2005). What is clear, however, is that in a period of late modernity the continued
operation of traditional institutions relies upon the reflexivity of individuals who make the decision to
engage with traditional authorities. For example, a minister may be a representative of the traditional
institution of the church, or he or she may, on occasion, be the representative of an expert system typical
of a late modern era, but he or she has always made the reflexive choice to submit to the traditional
authority of the church.
2.3 For an individual to navigate effectively through a late modern world he or she must employ a form of
self-reflexivity, which is an ‘...autonomous monitoring of life narratives...’ (Lash 1994: 116). By monitoring
their own life choices and the possible consequences of those choices, an individual is enabled not only to
create his or her own identity but also, in the event that the decisions made lead to disappointing results,
to recreate the identity. It might seem that a constantly shifting identity could lead to an individual feeling a
sense of confusion as to whom he or she is, but this is prevented by the composition and narration of a
coherent autobiography to go with the identity (Giddens 1991). An individual’s life story, however, must
maintain a close link with reality, so that the individual avoids becoming a Walter Mitty style character,
whose preferred life is lived in the privacy of the imagination (Thurber 1945). The individual’s story must
also incorporate into itself events that take place within the wider social sphere (Giddens 1991). For
example, an individual who fails to acknowledge the death of a close relative and continues to speak and
behave as if the relative were still alive, might be considered as having problems with grief, particularly in a
social setting that prioritises a medicalised view of appropriate grief and mourning (Walter, 1999).
2.4 The concept of the reflexive individual is not, however, without its difficulties. Such an individual must
make decisions for him or herself about matters that were once decided by tradition (Mouzelis 1999). The
reflexive individual described by Giddens (1991) has two possible routes to follow, so that he or she can
either make a rational decision in any given situation or can respond with a kind of unthinking compulsion.
This view of the individual has been criticised as presenting an overly rational picture, for there may be
other ‘.less cognitive ways of navigating reflexively in a world full of choices and individual challenges’
(Mouzelis 1999: 85). Research into aspects of family life, for example, suggests that while reflexivity is
evident in relationships and the decisions made about them, there is also evidence that the institution of
the family, and the conventional behaviours associated with that institution, continue to exert an influence.
Gilding (2010) suggests that primogeniture continues to influence the decisions made with regard to the
future running of family businesses, and also that spouse and children continue to inherit as primary
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