ABSTRACT
In this article the concept of continuing bonds, commonly used to analyse relationships between the living and the dead, is also applied to trace the lack of such relationships. Continuing bonds grant the deceased a social life, since these bonds make them matter here and now in various respects. Lack of such bonds, in contrast, results in post-mortem social death for the deceased. As we shall see, it is not always a question of either or – there is a liminal space in between, where the deceased are in a social sense both alive and dead. The analysis is based on an interview study conducted in Sweden 2013-2015 with 28 participants in all. The key concepts of the article will be discussed below.
