IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v2015y2015ipalcomms20159p15009-.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“When you see the lipstick kisses …” - military repatriation, public mourning and the politics of respect

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra Walklate

    (Liverpool University, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK)

  • Gabe Mythen

    (Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool)

  • Ross McGarry

    (Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool)

Abstract

Between 2007 and 2011, a small town in Wiltshire became indelibly associated with the repatriation of military personnel killed as a result of British involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. This article offers some empirical insight into, and analysis of, what this process of bringing the dead back home meant for the people of Wootton Bassett, a town afforded “Royal” status for their role in this particular repatriation process. The data gathered affords a unique opportunity to offer some general reflections on the presence of death and the politics of respect evidenced during this time and the wider implications that these process have for making sense of the ineffable within contemporary society. We suggest that Royal Wootton Bassett has not only changed the way in which we “mark the sacrifice of war”, but also encourages us as social scientists to critically reflect on the extent to which the theories that we have enable us to make sense of contemporary practices of public mourning.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra Walklate & Gabe Mythen & Ross McGarry, 2015. "“When you see the lipstick kisses …” - military repatriation, public mourning and the politics of respect," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(palcomms2), pages 15009-15009, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2015:y:2015:i:palcomms20159:p:15009-
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/palcomms/2015/palcomms20159/pdf/palcomms20159.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://www.nature.com/palcomms/2015/palcomms20159/full/palcomms20159.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2015:y:2015:i:palcomms20159:p:15009-. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.