Capital of Life in Death: How Bereaved Individuals Mobilise Cultural and Social Capital in UK Death Administration

This paper uses Bourdieu's concepts of cultural and social capital to critically examine death administration in the UK. Death administration relates to a set of tasks that bereaved individuals (usually a family member) must complete when someone dies-such as probate, asset management and funeral planning. It is a hidden form of administration which is complex, contradictory and often challenging to complete. Drawing on data from qualitative research, the paper shows how death administration is a relational activity which requires people to draw upon and transmit different forms of cultural capital (embodied, objectified and institutional) across life and death. Such capital is strongly mediated by family, and by a bereaved individual's ability to mobilise a wider set of social networks and resources. The article concludes by highlighting the ways in which the overall volume of capital bereaved individuals possess affects their ability to successfully navigate death administration. By bringing Bourdieu's theory of cultural and social capital together in a new empirical area, and by illuminating capital transmission across the boundaries of life and death, the paper offers an original conceptual contribution. By analysing new empirical data on death administration, the paper also extends the substantive focus of research on death and dying.