Place-bereavement-trajectories: Life-course experiences of loss in rural Irish communities

Abstract

Despite the demographic and cultural importance of bereavement in rural places, research on place-based bereavement experiences for rural older people remains underdeveloped. Consequently, how these experiences are patterned, mediated and co-constituted by spatial components and rural processes are poorly understood. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of place in the bereavement experiences of older adults living in small rural communities. Adopting a material and relational perspective regarding lived experience of bereavement transitions in place, the analysis draws on archived qualitative data (2012) from 106 in-depth life-course interviews, across 10 case-study sites, on later life in diverse rural settings in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Data is presented on the entanglement of different stages of bereavement (separation, liminality and incorporation) and on different dimensions of place (spatial/infrastructural, relational, cultural and affective/experiential). While varying across transition stage, and resident type, findings suggest that multiple dimensions of place can buffer or compound bereavement. However, bereavement also shapes places and older adults’ relationships to these places. Place and bereavement, therefore, emerge as entangled across a co-constitutive trajectory. Acknowledging this can facilitate the capacity of rural places to support bereavement as an individual and collective community experience, and enhance scholarly understandings of spatial dimensions of ageing-related transitions.