The Structure of the Professional Field as a Factor of the Death Image: the Case of the End-Of-Life Doulas

Death doulas carry out their activities in intimate and sensitive spheres of life of an individuum, specifically they improve the quality of everyday life of a person who faced with the phenomenon of own dying or the death of another person. This social field is defined as “emerging” and it reflects that the borders of this social space are blurred and in Russia there is no state legitimation. One of the significant factors which affects this structure is the factor of the image of death. The basis of this is that the image of death that is transmitted by a doula can vary from the education she received (lack of standardized methods of education) and from consumer to consumer (doulas try to personalize their knowledge for each client). The purpose of this work is to identify the structure of the social space of death doulas and to identify the specifics of the formation of the structure of this social field. For this purpose, a cross-sectional mono-method research design is used. It consists of a qualitative in-depth interview method, qualitative network analysis and analysis of semantic network. The empirical part of the study includes 19 death doulas: 12 death doulas from the first round of Death Foundation institute; 3 doulas from the 2nd round of the Death Foundation (one of them is studying both at the Death Foundation and at the Death Doula and Palliative Care course in the Institute of Human Development); 1 death doula, who is the founder (one of founders) of the Death Foundation course, who is also a teacher in this course and a supervisor; 2 founders of the Death Doula and Palliative Care course in the Institute of Human Development. Another informant (19th) was chosen to increase theoretical sensitivity and was close to the target sampling criteria, which provided for doula education and experience in practical interaction with a client. The collected data was analyzed and coded using K. Charmaz constructivist design. The results of the study deal with the “emergent” nature of this field, which appears in its fragmentation in various aspects of the conventional definition, but in the same time, it appears in the cohesion of the community in the sphere of certain educational institutions. Certain images of death are formed in the structure of this field. They relate to the increased value of life, ritualization (“rites of passage”) and the rationalization of death through the normalization of “scenes” and speaking. The singularity of such images is formed under the influence of Foucauldian discourse practices, which are spreading through networks of power throughout the community and form specific ideas about death. The specificity of such power was also demonstrated in the semiotic network while analyzing repeated linguistic metaphorical constructions. This study is of exploratory nature and it reveals data both concerning the structure of the field of death doulas and concerning its connection with the images of death that are formed within it, and on the specificity of the activities of the doulas themselves through the sociology of professions and emotional work.