Rituals in dying and mourning have a social and a psychic aspect: they have the twin function of diminishing the danger of succumbing to intense emotions (fear, despair, powerlessness and grief) by evoking a feeling of solidarity, and of enhancing the sense of being connected to a larger community, on which basis these emotions are acknowledged as well as dimmed and kept under control. As the changes in mourning ritual of the last half of the 20th century demonstrate, the relation (...) or balance between these social and psychic functions of mourning rituals has been changing. From the 1960s onward, many traditional rituals came under suspicion and were pushed aside. Since the 1980s, a quest for new rituals has emerged. The article will address the question of what has changed in the social and individual regulation of these feelings by comparing old, mostly religious rituals, to more recent ones. The latter will be interpreted as part of a highly individualized quest for societal recognition and solidarity, demonstrating how processes of individualization, `solidarization' and globalization are interconnected. (shrink)

Citizenship has traditionally been equated with borders and boundaries and, in particular, membership of a nation-state. Motivated by recent interest in the crossing of boundaries and processes of inclusion which operate across a common basis such as the nation-state, this article explores the ways in which international relations were implicitly and explicitly embedded in constructions of British citizenship in the 1940s. Focusing on representations of English girls in literature relating to the education and leisure of girls, this article identifies and (...) explores four international aspects of citizenship. First, it addresses the ways in which British citizenship was defined through an implicit or explicit juxtaposition with the citizenship associated with other nation-states. This international dimension worked to delineate boundaries. Second, the article examines how British citizens were defined as members of a community which transcended the nation. Following this, it explores the expectation that girls required international knowledge in order to effectively fulfil their duties as British citizens. Finally, the article investigates some of the ways in which British citizenship involved international responsibilities. Although some aspects of girls’ citizenship challenged national parochialism, the duties and characteristics of apprentice female citizens were articulated in ways that restated hierarchies which assumed the distinctiveness and authority of Britain and the British. (shrink)