Deathscapes and Diversity in multicultural England and Wales. Making space for minorities' and migrants' bodily remains, ritual and remembrance.

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In light of increasing ethnic and religious diversity in the UK (ONS 2012), many challenges have been raised practically and politically about living together in difference within in Britain (Keith, 2005). Much attention has focused upon Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) patterns of housing, education, employment and leisure, but migrant and established minority needs relating to cemetery, crematoria and sites of ritual and remembrance ('deathscapes') are less well understood or provided for. While death, sites of bodily disposal and practices of mourning and remembrance are universal phenomena, they are negotiated, practiced and ritualised in diverse ways within a multicultural society. Given the lack of systematic planning policy for this at national or local levels, we argue that diversity-ready deathscapes are a necessary but currently neglected aspect of an integrated multicultural society. Creating the conditions for integration is a government priority in multicultural Britain (UK Gov 2012). Government policy recognises that challenges are multifaceted and that integration comes from finding common ground in everyday life; it seeks to 'inspire and enable civil society and local areas to take action on integration issues that are important to them' (ibid., p19). Here, we propose using four case study towns in England and Wales (Huddersfield, Northampton, Swindon and Newport) in order to explore everyday deathscapes and diversity issues across a range of geographical regions and varied dynamic multicultural settings. This project will work with members of a range of minority and migrant communities to bring new insight to understanding diversity, death and remembrance in England and Wales, investigating: a) demand for culturally-specific spaces of bodily disposal and remembrance, both physical and virtual b) evidence of shared socio-cultural practice and diversity within communities of place, practice and/or beliefc) the role of lifecycle rites such as funerals and memorialisation in identity formation and sense of belonging within a multicultural society d) how local authority planners and Bereavement Service providers can respond to better meet these needs. The project will be innovative in its use of Death Cafés to meet local people and learn about death-related issues and concerns in each area before collecting data through focus groups and biographical interviews, as well as using creative practices of drawing, model-making and photo-logs to understand current provision and ideal cemetery/crematoria/memorial site design. This visual material will feature in the end of project feedback touring exhibition which will be shown in each case study town, alongside a final Death in each exhibition venue. The project will prompt public debate around the subject of minority deathscape provision in England and Wales, especially in the case study towns, as well as providing policy recommendations to local authority Planners and public and private Bereavement Service providers, which will feature in a report launched at a public workshop with participants, providers and policy-makers, including the Royal Town Planning Institute and Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management. We anticipate local and national media interest in the project findings, recommendations and its end of project touring exhibition.