Death Care Industry in Modern Russia: Breakdown of Infrastructure As Power Resource

Abstract

Russian death care industry is quite different from the European and American model. There are no any big national funeral corporations in Russia, no any private funeral homes or private mortuaries and cemeteries. All of the death care 84 industry infrastructure is owned by the government. The infrastructure is the source for illegal and criminal practices. Why illegal and criminal practices and bad technical conditions do not meet the government counter? May we say that it is the status quo? One possible way to answer on this question may be the analysis of the infrastructure. In this paper I am going to present: how the funeral infrastructure creates social and power relations between local government and funeral homes; the role of technical condition of infrastructure in the process of power control. I argue that the status quo, which is understood as the controlled infrastructure breakdown, intentionally supported by different actors. Repairs and maintenance of infrastructure is a form of political control between local government and business. The principal feature of the death care industry in Russia is a specific mechanism of controlling the powerful infrastructure environment. The impact on her condition is a special form of flexible political control when breaking infrastructure and its repair is a compromise between government and private funeral agencies.