Governing Cemeteries

How countries accommodate religious newcomers

This comparative and multi-level study of state responses is confronted with huge complexity. Almost all existing theoretical and methodological approaches -such as secularism (including multiple secularisms or post-secularism)- do not take these complexities seriously into account, focusing on one concept only (wrong Leitdifferenz). They neglect different meanings of terms for agents in the field and they neglect the importance of different levels of governance, times, issues and minorities. This study, however, highlights minimally necessary complexity without drowning in this complexity. It draws clear conceptual, theoretical and methodological lessons, also in a broader sense for the study of governance of religious and cultural diversity and for the governance of migrations. It is a must read. (Veit Bader, Professor Emeritus, University of Amsterdam) Van den Breemer's fascinating study of the religious governance of cemeteries by secular state institutions proves that cemeteries have become a privileged site to observe empirically the various ways in which the dual accommodation of religious-secular and multi-religious diversity takes place in today's post-secular Western European societies. (Jose Casanova, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University)

Préface
Providing a striking image of societal accommodation through the prism of cemeteries, this book compares state responses to Muslim and humanist burial needs. Such accommodation is typically understood in terms of national models. This book shows that, upon closer scrutiny, policy responses follow distinctive logics when compared between levels of governance. Furthermore, it shows that we have to look at material solutions as well. While indeed large legal and discursive national differences between states remain, in praxis they do the same. The book suggests a methodologically more coherent research agenda for the comparative study of religion, secularism, society and state.

Auteur
Rosemarie van den Breemer is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo.