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Ethnographic fieldnotes : funeral music at the crematorium / Lisa McCormick ; edited by Jamie Lewis.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextPublisher: London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018Description: 1 online resourceContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781526439406 (online resource) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 306
Online resources: This dataset exemplar concerns the analysis of ethnographic fieldnotes. The data are provided by Dr Lisa McCormick from the University of Edinburgh and includes extended fieldnotes taken on a busy day in a crematorium. Lisa's work is based in neo-Durkheimian cultural sociology (Alexander & Smith, 2003), which is concerned with ritual and symbolic processes in contemporary society. While discourse analysis remains the dominant method in this meaning-centred approach, new tools are being developed to study other aspects of cultural communication, such as performance. This research project investigated the role of music in funerals. On both sides of the Atlantic, funerals have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Secular, life-centred and "fun" funerals are becoming more common (Gadberry, 2000; Walter, 2006), and rising demand for personalised or "themed" funerals has spurred the funeral industry to develop products that suit every taste (Sanders, 2009). Music continues to be a central part of the service, but the range of music performed has expanded considerably beyond hymns (Parsons, 2012), and new technologies allow for recorded music to be played. Because of the attention to sound, this dataset will help you to think about the possibilities and challenges of an ethnography that involves the senses.
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Includes bibliographical references and index.

This dataset exemplar concerns the analysis of ethnographic fieldnotes. The data are provided by Dr Lisa McCormick from the University of Edinburgh and includes extended fieldnotes taken on a busy day in a crematorium. Lisa's work is based in neo-Durkheimian cultural sociology (Alexander & Smith, 2003), which is concerned with ritual and symbolic processes in contemporary society. While discourse analysis remains the dominant method in this meaning-centred approach, new tools are being developed to study other aspects of cultural communication, such as performance. This research project investigated the role of music in funerals. On both sides of the Atlantic, funerals have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Secular, life-centred and "fun" funerals are becoming more common (Gadberry, 2000; Walter, 2006), and rising demand for personalised or "themed" funerals has spurred the funeral industry to develop products that suit every taste (Sanders, 2009). Music continues to be a central part of the service, but the range of music performed has expanded considerably beyond hymns (Parsons, 2012), and new technologies allow for recorded music to be played. Because of the attention to sound, this dataset will help you to think about the possibilities and challenges of an ethnography that involves the senses.

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