Bereaved parents’ online grief communities: de-tabooing practices or relationbuilding grief-ghettos?

TY - CONF

T1 - Bereaved parents’ online grief communities: de-tabooing practices or relationbuilding grief-ghettos?

AU - Sandvik, Kjetil

AU - Christensen, Dorthe Refslund

AU - Hård af Segerstad, Ylva

AU - Kasperowski, Dick

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Parents may talk about their children extensively, as long as they are alive, but expressing the same kind of parental practice is taboo, once your child is dead (at least in the Nordic countries). This limits bereaved parents’ means for coping with and interpersonally communicating about their loss as well as their ability to establish and continue their role as parents. However, with new practices on children’s graves, the growing use of memory tattoos and especially the use of online media as platform for various communities for bereaved parents, this seem to be changing and strengthen both the interpersonal communication and social interactions about and with the deceased child. This study presents results from case studies of both open and closed online grief communities for bereaved parents in Denmark and Sweden (Refslund Christensen & Sandvik 2013, Hård af Segerstad & Kasperowski 2014) in order to analyze how development of practices and norms for grieving and mourning online are related to the particular conditions for participation, and how these practices are related to dominant ideas of grief in society as such. Rooted in contemporary research on processes of grief and mourning – especially focusing on changes from a paradigm om ‘letting go and moving on’ to paradigm of continuing bonds (Klass et al. 1996) and performing parenthood (Christensen & Sandvik 2015) – this presentation discusses which kinds of practices are performed and shared in the different forums and how norms and traditions are performed, challenged and negotiated in the various formats of interpersonal comminications. Can these practices lead to a softening of prejudices against mourners, i.e. de-tabooing the loss of a child, or do they lead to new biases and misconceptions as displayed in popular media, casting online communities for bereaved parents as grief-ghettos? Studying bereaved parents’ grief work in dynamic communities online enhances our understanding of contemporary and contributes to a nuancing of theoretical understanding of parental grief. References Christensen, D. R., & Sandvik, K. (2015). Death ends a Life not a Relationship: Timework and Ritualizations at Mindet.dk. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 21(1-2), 57-71.10.1080/13614568.2014.983561 Hård af Segerstad, Y & Kasperowski, D. (2015) A community for grieving: affordances of social media for support of bereaved parents, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 21:1-2, 25-41, DOI: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983557 Klass, D., Silverman, P.R. & Nickman, S.L. (1996) Continuing Bonds- New Understandings of Grief. Oxon: Taylor & Francis. Refslund Christensen, Dorthe & Sandvik, Kjetil. 2013. Sharing Death: Conceptions of Time at a Danish Online Memorial Site. In Dorthe Reflslund Christensen & Rane Willerslev (eds.), Taming Time, Timing Death. Social Technologies and Ritual, 99– 118. Farnham: Ashgate.

AB - Parents may talk about their children extensively, as long as they are alive, but expressing the same kind of parental practice is taboo, once your child is dead (at least in the Nordic countries). This limits bereaved parents’ means for coping with and interpersonally communicating about their loss as well as their ability to establish and continue their role as parents. However, with new practices on children’s graves, the growing use of memory tattoos and especially the use of online media as platform for various communities for bereaved parents, this seem to be changing and strengthen both the interpersonal communication and social interactions about and with the deceased child. This study presents results from case studies of both open and closed online grief communities for bereaved parents in Denmark and Sweden (Refslund Christensen & Sandvik 2013, Hård af Segerstad & Kasperowski 2014) in order to analyze how development of practices and norms for grieving and mourning online are related to the particular conditions for participation, and how these practices are related to dominant ideas of grief in society as such. Rooted in contemporary research on processes of grief and mourning – especially focusing on changes from a paradigm om ‘letting go and moving on’ to paradigm of continuing bonds (Klass et al. 1996) and performing parenthood (Christensen & Sandvik 2015) – this presentation discusses which kinds of practices are performed and shared in the different forums and how norms and traditions are performed, challenged and negotiated in the various formats of interpersonal comminications. Can these practices lead to a softening of prejudices against mourners, i.e. de-tabooing the loss of a child, or do they lead to new biases and misconceptions as displayed in popular media, casting online communities for bereaved parents as grief-ghettos? Studying bereaved parents’ grief work in dynamic communities online enhances our understanding of contemporary and contributes to a nuancing of theoretical understanding of parental grief. References Christensen, D. R., & Sandvik, K. (2015). Death ends a Life not a Relationship: Timework and Ritualizations at Mindet.dk. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 21(1-2), 57-71.10.1080/13614568.2014.983561 Hård af Segerstad, Y & Kasperowski, D. (2015) A community for grieving: affordances of social media for support of bereaved parents, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 21:1-2, 25-41, DOI: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983557 Klass, D., Silverman, P.R. & Nickman, S.L. (1996) Continuing Bonds- New Understandings of Grief. Oxon: Taylor & Francis. Refslund Christensen, Dorthe & Sandvik, Kjetil. 2013. Sharing Death: Conceptions of Time at a Danish Online Memorial Site. In Dorthe Reflslund Christensen & Rane Willerslev (eds.), Taming Time, Timing Death. Social Technologies and Ritual, 99– 118. Farnham: Ashgate.

M3 - Paper

T2 - ECREA

Y2 - 9 November 2016 through 12 November 2016

ER -