DiDe: Digital Death – Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife

DIDE – Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife

How do the dead live among us today? What kind of relationships can be established between the living and the dead in today’s society? How can we achieve immortality in the present-day digital society? The consortium Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife (DiDe) is an interdisciplinary research consortium that addresses the cultural and social transformation of human death in contemporary society as it is characterised by digital saturation of the current collective social and cultural existence. Although death is a universal condition of all humankind, the ways in which death is addressed, managed and performed in a given society and culture varies considerably. The European collaboration on research into death in its digital forms places special emphasis on European histories, cultures, religions, ideologies and technologies that shape the construction of digital death.

DiDe’s methodological focus is qualitative. The material will be gathered by collecting data on social media sites and among communities of mourners as well as professionals working with death-related issues; for example, online funeral services.

Death is a fundamental concern for human existence; hence, in addition to scholarly publications, DiDe advances public scholarship on digital death by developing new and creative ways to communicate, discuss and debate the meaning and significance of digital death in contemporary European societies and engages with different types of publics in diverse non-academic venues and digital settings and contexts.