You are warmly invited to a Human Geography Research Cluster/ Global Development Research Division in person (Sorby Room 115, 1st Floor of Wager Building) / hybrid seminar (1-2pm on 27/3/25).
Disturbing the dead: Climate change and the potential relocation of Swedish cemeteries
Roger Marjavaara, Umeå University, Sweden.
Abstract
This presentation focuses on the contradiction of mobility and immobility in relation to interred human remains. While society generally embraces human mobility, once individuals pass away and are disposed of, mobility ceases to be the norm. Some counties, like Sweden, has a rigid burial legislation that prohibits the re-location of interred human remains. However, both society- and climate-related events are increasingly affecting the eternal rest of the deceased. Utilizing quantitative data on all cemeteries in Sweden, this study aims to assess and analyse the potential magnitude of future large-scale moves of human remains due to expected impacts of climate change, and to put this into a relational context of norms and laws. Results show that climate change poses an apparent risk to cemeteries in Sweden.
Biography
Roger Marjavaara is associate professor in human geography at the department of geography at Umeå University, Sweden. The main focus of his research is the driving forces and consequences of human mobility. Here, temporary mobility, or tourism, is of special interest, especially second home tourism and its impact on places and people. Dr. Marjavaara also has an interest in production and reproduction of places, and retail geography and mobile consumers. Further, post-mortal mobility is another field that has attracted his research attention.
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