Death, Memorialization and Deviant Spaces (Emerald Studies in Death and Culture)

This book offers an ethnographic exploration of three sites of infamous atrocity and their differing memorialization. ‘Dark tourism’ research has studied the consumerization of spaces associated with death and barbarity, whilst ‘difficult heritage’ has looked at politicized, national debates that surround the preservation of death. This book contributes to these debates by applying spatial theory on a scalar level, particularly through the work of Henri Lefebvre. It uses escalating case studies to situate memorialization, and the multifarious demands of politics, consumption and community, within a framework that rearticulates ‘lived’, ‘perceived’ and ‘conceived’ aspects of deviant spaces ranging from the small (a bench) to the very large (a city).  

Matthew Spokes is Lecturer in Sociology at York St. John University, UK. His research principally focuses on the intersections between popular (and unpopular!) culture, death and spatial theory, especially in relation to interactive entertainment.