beneficiaries after death. Deciding to bequeath one’s worldly goods to surviving spouse and children may
be evidence of neither rational reflexivity nor unthinking compulsion, but an honouring of conventional
expectations and customs, or evidence of affection and concern (Mouzelis 1999).
2.5 The choices that any individual can make are always constrained by factors outside his or her own
control. Individuals learn from others such skills as how to speak the language, how to behave in a social
setting, how to understand the nuances of social life and the expectations placed upon him or her. These
are all essential skills for the exercise of self-reflexivity, so that the existence of the reflexive individual is
dependent upon the particular social setting (Adams 2003). It is also the case that issues of inequality
existing within a society are likely either to open up or limit the opportunities available to the individual,
depending upon his or her placing within that society. People with wealth, for example, have access to a
wider range of options than those who are poor because they have access to the resources with which to
pay for their choices (Giddens 1991).
2.6 Even in a late modern era individuals are not entirely free floating, for their decisions are filtered
through the abstract systems of symbolic tokens and expert systems (Giddens 1990). Symbolic tokens,
notably money in either cash or credit form, allow wealthier people a wide range of options to choose from,
while lack of money denies poorer individuals many of those same choices. In terms of arranging a funeral,
lack of money and worry about how to pay for the funeral can act as a restraint when making choices for
some individuals, while others may choose to put themselves into debt to avoid constraining their options
(Drakeford 1998; Corden et al. 2008). The funeral options available will usually be described and offered to
bereaved families by representatives of the expert system, who will make judgements as to what the
bereaved family can afford or are prepared to pay.
2.7 Expert systems utilise technical knowledge that is valid regardless of the individuals who use them
(Giddens 1991). Such expert systems are pervasive in late modern times and are to be found in almost all
aspects of life and death. Funeral directors, funeral officiants of all kinds, crematorium and cemetery staff,
florists, coffin makers; these are all representatives of the expert systems without which the bereaved
family cannot manage. The intervention of the expert systems is necessary because individuals have been
pulled away from belief in the traditional authorities which once guided people’s lives; whereas once, for
example, Scots turned to the Church when someone died (Smith 2009) this is no longer automatic for
many people in Scotland. Expert systems have also become necessary because, with the increased
specialisation of contemporary life, individuals lack the skills and knowledge needed to carry out many
tasks deemed essential (Giddens 1991). This is of particular relevance in dealing with a death, for
individuals and families rarely have the skills and technical knowledge to care for a dead body and are
unlikely to know how to organise a funeral without the input of professionals, even if they should wish to do
so. Death and dying have become the province of the experts (Howarth 2007).
2.8 Abstract systems act as disembedding mechanisms, lifting social relations out of the local context and
realigning them over potentially vast distances (Giddens 1990). With the growth of electronic media and the
increased mobility of individuals, it is possible to purchase goods and services from an individual one will
never meet using money one will never see; individuals may have relationships of many kinds with others
whom they never meet face to face. This applies to dealing with the aftermath of a death, just as it applies
to other life situations and it can be difficult for an individual to discriminate between the many forms of
mediated experience available. There are, for example, internet sites available that act as a resource for
people planning funerals (My Last Song 2010), as well as sites for creating memorials (Gone Too Soon nd)
and for sharing experiences of bereavement with others (Bereavement UK 2010). There is also a vast
range of published literature offering individuals assistance with funeral planning (for example Johnstone-
Burt et al. 2005; Morrell and Smith 2006), as well as organisations prepared to offer advice and information
(Wienrich and Speyer 2003: 364-378). One of the problems therefore for individuals living in this kind of
social environment is the difficulty of knowing whose advice to take, or which representative of the expert
systems to trust (Giddens 1990). In the case of organising a funeral, individuals often employ the funeral
director with whom they first make contact, without shopping around for a better deal or for a practitioner
who might provide a service better suited to their requirements (Parsons 2003).
2.9 The above discussion of aspects of the reflexive individual has highlighted a person who must make
choices about his or her life, but in circumstances where there are constraints upon the options available
and further constraints upon the decisions that can realistically be made. Such an individual is not free
floating, but subject to the influences of the social setting in which he or she lives, and must make use of
symbolic tokens and expert systems when navigating a path through life. Thus an individual may engage
in self-reflexivity and utilise abstract systems as an aid to decision making processes. For the recently
bereaved individual who has the responsibility of organising a funeral for the deceased person this presents
particular challenges, as revealed by the research which will be described next.
The research project
3.1 The research upon which this article draws was an exploratory study of Scottish funeral practices. It
was a qualitative project designed to investigate both the kinds of funeral practices that were being used in
early twenty-first century Scotland and also to explore whether those practices showed evidence of
personalisation, as increasingly appears to be the case in the western world. In this context personalisation
refers to the process by which a funeral is organised so that it references the character and personality of
the deceased individual, often through the use of eulogies, music and readings (Emke 2002; Garces-Foley
& Holcomb 2006; Schafer 2007). Within this setting, the speaking of the eulogy and talk amongst mourners
about the deceased person, which often takes place during a social gathering after the funeral, has been
described as part of the process of writing the final chapters of the biography of the person who died. Such
talk is notable because it allows the opportunity for varied stories to be told about the deceased individual,
highlighting the fact that an individual is perceived differently by different people, and it also offers a means
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