Email this article 
Hide
Show all
Creating a Place for Dialogue on Death to Form Views of Life and Death – Action Research in the Community
Abstract
Introduction: Views on life and death are the basis of everyday life for people at the end of life to express their intentions about where and how they want to spend their time, and for healthy people they are the basis for living life to the fullest.
Research Aim: Community dialogue would be effective in helping community residents form views on life and death. This study aimed to create a place where healthy residents could talk about death and form views on life and death.
Research Method: The study was conducted using the action research method. Residents of the study community who were unfamiliar with death met there and discussed a topic they had designated related to life and death. The meetings were held monthly for a year. About a dozen people attended each time. Notes from the meetings were subjected to qualitative analysis.
Findings: A safe place to share time and space was created in the community. The process of creating the place was divided into three phases: the phase of raising interest, the phase of initiating participation and the phase of leading activity, by focusing on the theme of dialogue, participants’ awareness and the balance between the author and the participants.
Conclusion: Study participants deepened their thoughts on death through internal and external dialogues and formed their unique views on life and death while pursuing psychological well-being. The group embraced dialogue with empathy, creating a collective narrative about death that recursively empowered participants. The dual dynamics of discovering death both individually and collectively were confirmed.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Ariès, P. (1975). Essais sur ll’histoire de la mort en Occident. Éditions du Seuil.
Baldwin, P.K. (2017). Death Cafés: Death doulas and family communication. Behavioral Sciences, 7(2), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs7020026
Borrat-Besson, C., Vilpert, S., Borasio, G.D., & Maurer, J. (2020). Views on a “Good Death”: End-of-life preferences and their association with socio-demographic characteristics in a representative sample of older adults in Switzerland. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 85(2), 409–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820945071
Breen, L.J., Kawashima, D., Joy, K., Cadell, S., Roth, D., Chow, A., & Macdonald, M.E. (2022). Grief literacy: A call to action for compassionate communities. Death Studies, 46(2), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1739780
Death Café. (n.d.). Welcome to Death Café. https://deathcafe.com/
Edmondson, A.C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Review of Organization Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305
Erikson, E.H., Erikson, J.M., & Kivnick, H.Q. (1986). Vital Involvement in Old Age. W.W. Norton & Company.
Fong, J. (2017). The Death Café Movement: Exploring the Horizons of Mortality. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54256-0
Fujii, T. (2006). Sankagataakushonrisachi. The Journal of Social Problems, 55(2), 45–64. [In Japanese]
Hiroi, Y. (2001). Shiseikan wo Toinaosu. Chikuma-Shobou. [In Japanese]
Jacobsen, M.H., &Petersen, A. (2020). The return of death in times of uncertainty – a sketchy diagnosis of death in the contemporary ‘corona crisis’. Social Sciences, 9(8), 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9080131
Kashimoto, N. (2014). Tetsugakukafue niokerutokunokanyou. In Café Philo (Ed.), Tetsugakukafue no tukurikata (pp. 3–15). The University of Osaka Press. [In Japanese]
Kellehear, A. (2005). Compassionate Cities Public Health and End-of-Life Care. Routledge.
Koksvik, G.H., & Richards, N. (2021). Death Café, Bauman and striving for human connection in ‘liquid times.’ Mortality, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2021.1918655
Kondo, M. (2010). Kankeihattaturon kara Toraeru Shi. Kazama-Shobou. [In Japanese]
Kohno, T. (2019).Hito ha Kataritudukerutoki Kangaeteinai. Iwanami-Shoten.[In Japanese]
Levinson, D.J. (1978). The Seasons of a Man’s Life. Knopf.
Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1946.tb02295.x
McAdams, D.P., & de St Aubin, E.D. (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(6), 1003–1015. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.62.6.1003
McAdams, D.P., Hart, H.M., & Maruna, S. (1998). The anatomy of generativity. In D.P. McAdams & E.D. de St. Aubin (Eds.), Generativity and Adult Development: How and Why We Care for the Next Generation (pp. 7–43). American Psychological Association.
McLoughlin, K., McGilloway, S., Lloyd, R., O’Connor, M., Rhatigan, J., Shanahan, M., Richardson, M., & Keevey, A. (2016). Walls, wisdom, worries, and wishes: Engaging communities in discussion about death, dying, loss, and care using Café Conversation. Progress in Palliative Care, 24(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1179/1743291X15Y.0000000011
Morioka, M. (2018).Imikousei no jenerateibuitei. In Y. Okamoto, Y. Kamite, Y. Takano. (Eds.), Sedaikeishouseikenkyu no tenbou (pp. 31–43). Nakanishiya-shuppan. [In Japanese]
Oldenburg, R. (1989). The Great Good Place Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Da Capo Press.
Phillips, C. (2001). Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy. W.W. Norton.
Rappaport, J. (1995). Empowerment meets narrative: Listening to stories and creating settings. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 795–807. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506992
Strupp, J., Köneke, V., Rietz, C., & Voltz, R. (2021). Perceptions of and attitudes toward death, dying, grief, and the finitude of life – a representative survey among the general public in Germany. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 84(1), 157–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222819882220
Sun, Y., Yamori, K., & Tanisawa, R. (2016). Bousai-genenkatsudouniokerutoujisha no shutaisei no kaihuku wo mezashitaakushonrisachi. The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 55(2), 75–87. [In Japanese] https://doi.org/10.2130/jjesp.1507
Tagaki, M. (2022). The narratives of a researcher with disability as interventions in local disability policy-making. Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09720-5
Takenouchi, H. (2016). Taiwasurusiseigaku-Sousitutotomoniikirutameni. In H. Takenouchi & S. Asahara (Eds.), Sousitu to tomoniikiru (pp. 7–16). Porano-shuppan. [In Japanese]
Takenouchi, H. (2020). Taiwa wo tooshite sei to shi wo tankyusuru. Culture and Philosophy, 37, 31–69. [In Japanese]
Tomoi, K. (2020). Chiikijumin ga shi wo kangaeshiseikan wo jouseisiteikukatei. The Journal of Social Problems, 69(148), 67–80. [In Japanese]
Tomoi, K. (2021). Nihon no shiseikannikansurukenkyuchiken to kadai. The Journal of Social Problems, 70(149), 81–93. [In Japanese]
Tomoi, K. (2022). Death attitudes among middle-aged and older adults in Japan: A qualitative study based on Erikson’s theory of generativity. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 90(2), 536–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221108296
Von Blanckenburg, P., Leppin, N., Nagelschmidt, K., Seifart, C., & Rief, W. (2021). Matters of life and death: An experimental study investigating psychological interventions to encourage the readiness for end-of-life conversations. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 90(4), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1159/000511199
Walter, T. (2017). What Death Means Now Thinking Critically about Dying and Grieving. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781447337416
Yamada, Y. (2000). Jinsei wo monogataru. Mineruva-Shobou. [In Japanese]
Yamori, K. (2007). Owaranaitaiwanikansurukousatsu. The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(2), 198–210. [In Japanese] https://doi.org/10.2130/jjesp.46.198
Yamori, K. (2010). Akushonrisachi. Shinyo-sha. [In Japanese]
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lrp.2025.44.1.123-140
Date of publication: 2025-03-25 23:48:55
Date of submission: 2024-12-29 13:53:29
Statistics
Indicators
Copyright (c) 2025
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.