What makes conversations about death with strangers enjoyable? Applying a neo-tribal lens to the Death Café interaction

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7203063
AutoresSolveiga Zibaite (0009-0001-1610-0765, University of Strathclyde, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen30
Número3
Páginas760-783
Fecha de publicación2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMortality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1357-6275 • E-ISSN: 1469-9885
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13576275.2024.2386563
OpenAlexW4401280044
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas51

Death Café is a not-for-profit international social franchise founded in 2011 in London. This paper is based on the most extensive empirical research of Death Cafés to date, examining the content of Death Café conversations. I interrogate the finding that, alongside talking directly about death and dying, people at a Death Café consistently talk about the value of being at a Death Café and about the value of talking about death. I introduce three main ways that talking about the value of conversations about death appears in a Death Café and, most importantly, I argue that talking about the value of conversations about death is an enjoyable part of the conversation in its own right. I use neo-tribal theory and its concept of aesthetics as 'a way of feeling in common' and 'a means of recognising ourselves' to examine this further. When talking about the value of conversations about death, Death Café participants reflexively consider the activity they are engaging in= together, which strengthens the feeling of collectivity, and bonds them into a neo-tribe. This paper demonstrates that Death Café is a valued form of social interaction, moving it away from the current academic attempts to discover Death Café's instrumental utility

Aesthetics · Art · Conversation · Feeling · Sociology · Terror management theory · Value (mathematics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Communication · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Psychology · Social Psychology