On encountering corpses: political, socio-economic and cultural aspects of contemporary encounters with dead bodies.

在各种社会文化、社会经济、政治、医疗和情感背景下，与身体相遇正变得越来越常见。然而，公众对这些遭遇的理解和学术研究是有限的，也不是非常连贯。不断变化的社会态度、新技术、移民和多元文化主义、与身体有关的医疗需求和经济机会正在迅速变化。在英国，移民社区在与遗体处置的仪式和做法相关的空间主张方面提出了不同的要求(例如。墓地是如何组织的，如何适应不同的埋葬方式？)有关身体的社会趋势也在发生变化。例如，在埋葬前观看遗体方面，存在着强烈的阶级差异。遗体处理的其他选择也越来越受欢迎，例如不同的骨灰处理方式或“绿色”埋葬方式的选择。艺术实践的形式(如“身体世界”可塑性人类遗骸展览)，考古学(例如。理查德三世的遗骸)，流行文化(例如。电视取证犯罪连续剧)和旅游产品(例如。黑暗旅游)和他们的媒体报道让人类遗骸在日常生活中变得更加明显。捐献身体用于医学研究和身体身体部位的全球贸易，再加上使这些成为可能的技术的发展，也使身体在当代社会接触中发挥作用，这就提出了关于生物医学材料的监管和管理以及死者亲属的经验的重要问题。因此，这一系列会议将汇集广泛的研究人员和从业者，目的是增加对与管理、处理和展示身体有关的不断变化的社会趋势的了解。在每个研讨会上，一系列参与管理人类遗骸的国际学者和专业人员将就当今与死者有关的社会、文化、伦理和技术问题展开辩论。讨论将涵盖广泛的背景，从葬礼到旅游，从捐赠身体用于医学研究到身体部位的经济贸易，适应“绿色”和基于信仰的埋葬要求，了解扰乱人类遗骸的伦理(例如。在伦敦横贯铁路或HS2等重大基础设施项目中，政治政权使用身体。研讨会还将为在这些情况下遇到死者的各种专业人员和公众提供信息。一个关键成果是加强对这些情况下有关身体的社会态度和做法的了解，并探讨其对政策制定和实践的影响。教堂、地方当局和墓地管理者应该如何利用空间来容纳不同的信仰团体？制造商可以为日益增长的绿色墓葬市场生产什么样的新产品？旅游公司如何敏感地利用人类遗骸来获取经济利益？在所有这些背景和进程中，研讨会的目的也是为了更好地了解公众的态度，以确保以敏感和合乎道德的方式处理死者。

Encounters with dead bodies are becoming more commonplace in a range of socio-cultural, socio-economic, political, medical and emotional contexts. However, public understanding of, and academic research regarding, these encounters is limited and not very coherent. Changing social attitudes, new technologies, migration and multi-culturalism, medical demands and economic opportunities relating to dead bodies are changing rapidly. Migrant communities bring different demands in terms of claims on space connected to the rituals and practices of bodily disposal in the UK (eg. how are cemeteries organized, how can different burial practices be accommodated?). Social trends regarding the dead body are also changing. There is a strong class divergence with respect to viewing the body before burial, for example. Alternative choices of bodily disposal are also increasingly popular, such as different ways of disposing of funerary ashes or choices about forms of 'green' burial. Forms of artistic practice (eg. the "Bodyworlds" exhibition of plasticised human remains), archaeology (eg. Richard III's remains), popular culture (eg. TV forensic crime series) and tourism products (eg. 'dark tourism') and their media coverage have made human remains more visible in the everyday. The donation of bodies for medical research and the global trade in post-mortem body parts, combined with the growth of technologies that make these possible, also bring the dead body into play in contemporary social encounters which raise important questions about the regulation and management of biomedical material and the experience of relatives of the dead.This series of meetings will thus bring together a wide range of researchers and practitioners with the aim of increasing understanding of these changing social trends related to managing, disposing of and presenting dead bodies. In each seminar a range of international academics and professionals involved in managing human remains will debate present-day societal, cultural, ethical and technological concerns related to the dead. The discussions will cover a wide range of contexts, from funerals to tourism, donating bodies for medical research to the economic trade in body parts, accommodating 'green' and faith-based requirements for burial, understanding the ethics of disturbing human remains (eg. in major infrastructure projects such as London Crossrail or HS2), to the use of dead bodies by political regimes. The seminars will also produce information for the various professionals and members of the public who encounter the dead in these contexts. A key outcome is to enhance understandings of social attitudes and practices with regard to the dead body in these situations and to explore the implications for policy-making and practice eg. how should churches, local authorities and cemetery managers use space to accommodate different faith groups, what kinds of new products might a manufacturer produce for the growing market in 'green' burials, how might a tourism company sensitively use human remains for economic gain? In all of these contexts and processes the seminars are also aimed at generating a better understanding of public attitudes in order to ensure that the dead are dealt with sensitively and in an ethical way.