Modernity in the Funeral Industry: A look at Disneyization and McDonaldization in the Australian funeral industry

    This is my third essay on modernity in the funeral industry.  In these essays I am taking concepts from tourism studies and applying it to the funeral industry to show how the two industries are quite similar.

    I have found that many consider the funeral industry to be 'old fashioned' and traditional.  Yet this is not really the case as the funeral industry is modern industry, with large international corporations, mass consumption models and so on.

    In this essay I apply two key concepts of modernisation to the funeral industry.  Essentially both of these concepts come out of tourism and are used to explain modernity in society.  You can read my abstract below, and find the link to the whole essay.

Coffin Costs

    The coffin is an important item to any funeral, after all, when one thinks or googles funeral the first things that come up are usually of people carrying or crying over a coffin in a cemetery.  Yet it is so expensive, disproportionately so.  A mid-range coffin will have well over 100% profit on it.  What is interesting is that people pay this cost and that once they find out about the high profit margine they are offended.  We do not like the idea of a funeral home making profits, all despite it being a business like any other.  Coles sells food, Big W sells products and funeral homes sell the process of dealing with the dead.  But they all use the same models and methods to do so.  So here I intend to examine the prices of coffins, what people get for their money and why they cost so much.

    The coffin is one of the most important items in many ways and to many people.  Coffins carry with them an emotional significance for most people, especially when they think it holds the body of their loved one.  I noticed that people will treat the coffin with reverence and significance.  Naturally this varies from culture to culture and person to  person.  For example ethnic people (such as Greeks, Lebanese, Italians, etc) will often want to 'touch' the coffin in some way or see inside it.  They touch it by either by crowding around madly and emotionally or by quietly and calmly carrying it.  Traditional Catholics on the other hand will sometimes touch the coffin by carrying it, but unless they are part of a religious order they will rarely be physically involved with the coffin and not want to see inside.  However they do gaze on it more, for them it is more visually significant than for other cultures.

Ready and waiting to be sold.

    It is also often the most expensive item at a funeral.  This is because it is all but essential for a funeral.  You have to get the body there somehow and people rarely want to see the body itself being interacted with.  People like the body to be in a box or wrapped up heavily and it is this wrapping or box that is handled.  However, while essential this is not the reason the coffin will cost so much, nor is it the reason "high end" coffins exist.  It is because of the previously mentioned significance that they are so costly.  For a low end coffin one could expect to pay $1,000.  For a midrange model one pays $2,000 to $5,000 and for the top end it would cost $6,000 or more.  

    The value for money is quite interesting.  Firstly coffins are just boxes, usually wooden, and looking at them being made this is quite clear.  Although the end product is actively deceptive of this fact, and idea I will expand in another post at another time.  But for now I will explain that they are usually chipboard, just like furniture.  Yes, until you get to the high midrange prices or higher the inside is just chipboard and it will have shiny plastic handles.  One of InvoCares favourite coffins are what people in the industry refer to as "the ikea coffins" or "the snap-together coffins.  Because they literally snak together, they arrive at the funeral home, fresh from China, as flat separate pieces in a cardboard box.  Staff then take these pieces and "whack them together", not needing any glue, nails, stapes or anything else to fix the pieces together.  Due to being made in China on mass they are very cheap for InvoCare, even after shipping they cost well under the price charged.  However they are considered to be very cheap and low quality by those I talked with in the industry.  There were often gaps of almost an inch between whole sides, exposing the contents within.  There was also an incident or two where a coffin got caught as it was lowered at the grave, quite a common affair, but on a few rare occasions they broke open, quite uncommon.  Another interesting point on the low end models is that this is where LifeArt starts and aims most of its advertising.  LifeArt are basically cardboard coffins which are said to be very cheap compared to others and also very environmental.  Luckily neither of these points are particularly true, not that the truth matters to most.  But they cost more than the basic $1,000 chipboard coffins and are made from trees as are the wooden coffins. 

    Of course this is just the low end coffins, with the midrange the quality often changes quite a bit.  For example midrange models are almost always chipboard (which is actually quite decent for a coffin) and put together in a more complex method than the 'snap together' variety.  These coffins will also sometimes feature actual metal handles rather than plastic and have more details on the body of the coffin.  But they cost $5,000 or more, so one would expect these basic changes.  Yet seeing it from the undertakers angle one wonders if this price is worth it.  People outside the industry assumed that if the coffin cost $5,000 for them then it would cost the funeral home $4,000 or more.  It was always assumed that the profit margin was low or at least modest.  When I informed them that the coffin actually cost $1,000 to $2,000 (after shipping and tax) they were quite surprised and outraged.  But why, what is wrong with a business making money?  Well, quite simply I wont answer this here, it is too long and convoluted a concept to discuss in this post.  So for now I will look at why the funeral home has such a high profit on certain coffins.

    As one conductor said "the expensive coffins are the bread and butter of the industry".  He went on to say that this large profit allows the company to survive, to pay the employee wages and cover unforeseen costs.  One would think that the "service fee" families pay for funeral would cover the cost of the funeral.  But it only covers most of it and for that funeral.  There are others where the service fee did not cover everything.  For example I waited for over an hour at RPA for the body to be released (due to the shocking attitudes and management at RPA).  So who paid for the time we spent there, for two people to just sit around for an hour or so?  Well the coffin did.  It would be wrong and inappropriate to pass this cost directly onto the family, whether they can afford it or not.  But it would be just as wrong not to pay the transfer crew for their time.  Thus instead the cost is taken off the cost of the high profit coffins.  So now you might be thinking that undertakers are basically taking the costs of funerals from those who pay for a high profit coffin.  This is essentially correct; the funeral home is doing a funeral yet charing another family for the costs that the original family would refuse.  Nothing is wrong with this practice, the costs have to be covered and it would be wrong or impossible for the funeral home to pass on these costs.  So if they want to stay in business then they have to find the money somewhere.  This somewhere is high profit coffins, if people are willing to pay this price then the funeral home has every right to charge the price.  A suit salesman once told me that he would charge over 180% profit in some suburbs for his suits to cover the costs of selling suits at a slight loss in other places.  It is simply the same process at work with coffins.

    Actually the whole coffin sale process is quite refined.  Tom Jokinen explains the American coffin sale process in 'Curtains: Adventures if an undertaker in training' (an amusing and true book).  Here he illustrates how where coffins are placed in the "show room" is strictly dictated.  And not just their hight, but their lateral location (as in which is on the right and which is on the left).  They even specifically design the pathway people will walk, working out the direction and pace of travel.  All very American and related to McDonaldization, yet in Australia we do not do things quite the same way.  The sale of coffins is often more relaxed here, although showrooms exist and are thought about they are not thought of in the same detail as in America.  In fact WNBull (a top funeral home in Sydney and one of the most expensive) did not even have a show room of any sort.  One existed in the past but they found it was not used very much or well and as such turned it into a meeting room.  This is interesting in and of itself.  That in America the show room is considered important if not essential for most funeral homes according to Jokinen.  Yet in Australia even a top funeral home did not see a need for a show room and instead thought a staff meeting room would be more effective.  Actually, not many funeral homes in Australia have show rooms.

    Many undertakers who are involved with organising a funeral for a loved one, or themselves, will tend to buy the midrange coffins.  These people will also either inspect the coffin in the trim shop, not in the show room or simply pick it from a book (like most Australians).  However they will always have a pre-determined preference for the coffin.  They know what they want, what they will pay and what they will get and they got for that.  Talking with undertakers who had organised funerals for relatives it was clear they were never sold a coffin so much as bought the coffin.  Yet more interestingly, knowing the value and markup, people with industry experience will either got for the very cheapest of the cheap of upper midrange.  From talking with them I think it is because they know the value of the cheap coffin is decent and they do not see the reasoning for paying more.  After all, these are people who have been to several funerals every day for the past few years which has made it a mundane and common affair.  When they got for the upper midrange it appears to usually be because of the "value" or "quality" that they see in these coffins.  They know what they are getting, know the high profits and yet think of these coffins as quite worth it for themselves and their loved ones. 

    If one wanted to buy and provide a coffin themselves without going through a funeral home then this is quite possible.  Simply contact a coffin manufacturer and see which one will sell a single coffin.  Almost all Australian coffin manufactures would be quite happy and willing to sell one coffin to someone (and have done so in the past, even taking custom orders).  I would recommend 'Beta Caskets' for this as they have good service, are good quality and well priced.  You might pay a lot more than it cost to make, but it would still be cheaper than buying it from a funeral home.  Again, despite knowing this and having contacts with coffin manufacturers funeral directors are still most likely to buy the coffin through the funeral home.  I have never heard of someone with industry experience buying the coffin from the manufacturer.

    Value is an complicated idea when talking about coffins.  One dimension is that they have an emotional value, playing an important role in the funeral service.  On another side they have a financial value, people want quality for paying thousands.  Yet this value decreases as price increases with top range coffins having over 100% profit for the funeral home.  At first many people find this profit avaricious, to be taking advantage of the dead and the grieving to make money.  Upon closer inspection this becomes transparently false as the money does go to covering valid unspoken costs.  Without the top end coffins there would be far fewer funeral homes and far fewer options for families.

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LifeArt; A look at the modern funeral industry

     Funerals are quite a modern affair, much like the fast food, tourism or any other highly organised industry.  For example in this other post I (quickly and lightly) discuss how crematoriums can easily be linked to concepts from the tourism industry.  I find the LifeArt coffins to be another interesting example for the modern funeral and only exist because of how the funeral industry is a modern process  So here I intend to examine what the LifeArt coffin is and what role it plays in this modern process.


   The LifeArt coffin is an interesting and quite frankly strange thing.  It is basically and simply a cardboard coffin.  It is made from the same style of cardboard as pizza boxes and as such I have heard a couple of funeral directors call them "pizza box coffins" with destine.  The only wood or real non-cardboard material used is a few blocks of wood on the inside to reinforce the handles.  One would wonder what market a cardboard coffin would have.  Most people want "the best" for their loved one.  And this idea has been the basis for the coffin industry for many decades.  People pay high price with the idea they are getting high quality.  The result of which is that much of the funeral industry has become dependant on high profit coffins as a means to survive.  So along comes a cardboard version, and it is still more expensive than the cheapest wood coffins.  Thus we would doubt LifeArts place in an old and established market.
   So lets look at the advertising and marketing for this strange new coffin.  On the homepage of the LifeArt website we see the main image is of a child.  A strangely common image in the industry with the focus being on life (always depicted as young by the industry) rather than death.  But it also focuses on two ideas, environment and personalised.  These are fascinating ideas to the industry, as personalisation is very old and very important to funeral homes and families.


   Personalisation is an old idea which has been emphasised in the modern industry.  Firstly I will quickly clarify that by personal I mean two distinct things.  One one hand we have personal, which is warm, relevant and relatable to the mourners.  On the other hand I am also referring to personalised which is basically customising the event to meed the desires of the family and/or deceased.  The two are so intertwined and related in many ways that I will refer to them both at once to simply save time.  Looking at older style funeral home ads I found that a few would talk of "personalising the service" to cater to the family and/or the deceased.  The concept does appear and is important to funeral homes but it is not essential or emphasised over other concepts.  However in the modern funeral industry the idea of a personal or personalised service is almost essential.  Looking at the websites for Simplicity, Guardian and White Ladys, which are all owned by Invocare and Olsens and T.J.Andrews, which are independent we can see how important this concept of 'personal' is.  It appears several times on each website and each emphasise how they are prepared to personalise the service to fit the family or deceased.  Looking at just arranging a burial style funeral we can see exactly how important personalisation is.  Simplicity advertises the ability to personalise stuff on the funeral.  Such as having a set of golf clubs in the hearse with the coffin or that it is willing and able to get a horse drawn hearse, something I have never seen or heard of.  It is such an odd extreme and nobody I had asked ever saw a horse drawn hearse.  Guardian focuses more on how it will "personalise the service to your cultural, spiritual, emotional and personal preferences".  They chose to focus on advertising emotional and cultural personalisation without stating anything specific.  White Ladies even has a whole section on personalising the service.  They focus on 'little touches' and helping "achieve a truly memorable funeral service".  Here the whole company emphasis is strongly on personal service.  Even their motto "a woman's understanding" leads one to believe that they will be willing to listen and personalise the service.  These three websites are all for large national companies owned by InvoCare, which itself is a large international company.  Just looking at the sites at once one can see the similarities.  Their templates are almost exactly the same, the placement of information, links and art styles are all identical.  Knowing how to navigate one site means knowing how to navigate any of them.  Even the style of language and what is said is the same.  They all explain things, such as arranging a funeral, in such a similar manner.  Really, the only difference is the colour of the site.  One is left wondering how personal their services could be, if their websites are the same down to the language style and template used then they must all be so similar.  Thus we turn to the two large independent funeral homes websites to see if 'personal' is just an InvoCare thing or an industry wide concept.  Olsens is a mostly Shire and South Sydney company and has been established for many years.  Clicking on "what type of funeral" one is immediately confronted with talk of how they will personalise the service.  They state how they provide a "distinctly" and "carefully" personal service.  T.J Andrews does not explicitly talk of "personal" or "personalising" funerals.  They do however talk heavily of how chan change and customise funerals depending on cultural and individual needs or desires.  So while not explicit T.J.Andrews does place importance on personal services.  All of these websites spend time they could use advertising other things to emphasises the personal concept.  It really is an important concept to the funeral industry.  This is no different with the LifeArt coffin website.  A main advertising point is how the coffin itself can be personalised.  From having pictures or photos printed onto it in the manufacturing process to painting it, the coffin is very "customisable".  They differentiate themselves from other coffins by emphasising how people can interact with the coffin and make it into the image they desire.  I remember one time where a family painted the LifeArt coffin themselves, and although it did not look the best they were extremely happy with the outcome.  The outcome had little impact on them itself, what they really focused on and had meaning was the act of painting the coffin.

   One is left wondering why exactly this is such an important concept to the industry.  That the funeral homes pay so much attention to it and that LifeArt uses 'personal' as a main basis for its very existence.  Well, my thought is that it is based in the modernising of the industry itself.  Looking at the websites they are all so similar, mainly the InvoCare owned ones (which LifeArt is also owned by).  They are mass production companies no different to McDonalds.  In fact InvoCare companies all use the same facilities (of which there are only four main ones across Sydney) and often the same staff.  Staff will work a Simplicity funeral one hour then a Guardian one the next, all from the same location.  They even have magnetic company plates for the hearse so the same hearse can work different funerals in the same day from different companies.  I have heard of people working at the main InvoCare locations stating how cold these places are.  That they are heartless and "efficient production facilities".  This is the process of modernisation and democracy.  Everything is done on mass, efficiently, transparently and equally.  Think of apartments, the modern answer to housing, they are about providing accommodation to the masses (particularly in Eastern Europe) and this is where the whole idea for them comes from.  Apartments house many people at once in the exact same conditions and to the same standards.  This is democracy and modernity in action and is the same with the funeral industry.  Everything is the same amongst the various funeral homes, independent or otherwise, with little difference.  This leads to a need or desire to individualise, by carving out nieces (which I will talk of another time) and by talking about how personal their service is.  But basically because these companies are so similar, even going so far as to share staff and facilities, they need to separate themselves from each other.  When people find out about how the bodies are all treated the same and on mass they (even those within the industry who do this job) are against it.  People do not like the idea of the dead being treated on mass like other products.  We like to think that the dead are treated as individual people, not processed products.  Yet the truth of the matter is that this is how the modern funeral home handels bodies.  However the funeral homes do not want people to see or think of them as cold companies who just process the dead.  And to do this they highlight and perpetuate the idea that they are a 'personal' place and service who care for the dead rather than deal with the dead.  As a completely new product LifeArt is a great example of this.  They are literally mass produced by machines, no talk of "hand made" or individual manufacturing.  Instead they have a lot of focus on how they can be customised to suit the needs of families or the deceased.  There are three main sections devoted to personal coffins, "how to create a DIY (decorate it yourself)", "create a custom design" and "create personalised design" all of which are featured and accessible on the homepage or from anywhere else on the website.  The 'DIY' section talks of how families are able to decorate the coffin in different ways even featuring a testimonial from a funeral director.  He talks of how a family used "mum's gift" (the coffin) to come together as a family.  They took great joy in decorating it and shared stories about the departed mother while doing so.  LifeArt is depicted here as a way to help deal with the loss of a loved one and bring people together by personalising the coffin.  In the 'create a custom design' section they advertise how they turn peoples "ideas into a completely unique design" that are only limited by imagination.  The final part I looked at 'create a personalised design' even emphasises the concept of personal in the very title.  LifeArt held an exhibition a few months ago (which was publicised in the InvoCare magazine) where they got local artists to decorate their coffins.  This was to display the various things that can be done with the coffin and how people can interact with it rather than just look at it.  However in this section they talk more about text that can be printed onto the coffin (such as names, dates, saying, messages and so on), quite strange when the other two sections are wholly focused on images and visual of the coffin.   Either way all three sections talk of how the LifeArt coffin can be very personal, either through images or text.  A concept which was not important a few years ago gets the majority of the products website.  These are coffins which could not have existed even a few years ago.  For one the technology was no around to make them possible let alone viable and the attitudes towards modern funeral homes did not exist.
 

The visual variety of the coffins

   The main aim of LifeArt is about how it can be made personal, yet this is actually quite debatable.  They are literally mass-printed on machines from a set template.  Every coffin has to be the same shape and even size with no physical deviations between each other.  Even the handels and thumbscrews are the same for every coffin.  Indeed the whole thing is a result of a mass production system with the focus on efficiency.  One must wonder how personal they can be if they are all physically the same and have no options for difference.  The 'standard' wood coffins have options for different handels, different thumbscrews and people have a choice of many different types for each price bracket.  With variations in colour or type of wood, style of the lid and other physical details of the coffin.  Basically the only variation for the LifeArt coffins is what can be printed on the outside while the other coffins have a variety of physical differences.  And yet the LifeArt can be more personal than the other coffins solely through visual variations.  They offer printing oh specific photos, pictures or words and have the option to be decorated by the family.  None of these options are really available for the other coffins, although they have more physical variations and can be custom made from scratch they are not as personal.


   The other main aspect LifeArt advertise is that they are environmentally friendly.  Talk of 'green' burials or funeral processes has existed for some time.  I remember an article (which I cannot find) talking of how a biologist had developed a completely zero carbon footprint burial method.  It was 100% environmentally green.  Basically (and un-poetically) the process was to be buried in a bio degradable potato sack under a tree.  LifeArt is the next, publicly palatable step in this process.  The website states how LifeArt coffins take less fuel to burn in crematoriums, cutting emissions by 60%.  They are made from 97% recycled fibers (from both reused paper and sugarcane) and they require less energy and pollutant to make.  Indeed being green is important to LifeArt, and yet 'green' as a predominant environmental concept is only quite recent and modern.  Many products, such as cars, advertise themselves as 'green' and with a low negative impact on the biological and social environment.  Something no coffin before has done, or even tried to do.  And yet LifeArt has carved out quite a nice market in doing so.
   LifeArt are a product made possible by modern technology and processes as well as the very attitudes to these modern processes.  Through an ever modernising and democratising the industry a need has arisen to counter the impersonal and mass production of this process.  LifeArt is a great example of this with a majority of the website, advertising and even aim of the product devoted to how the coffins can be personalised.  The second focus of LifeArt is on how 'green' it is, another modern concept.  However both of these concepts are somewhat debatable.  Overall the funeral industry is modernising and the result of which is a desire to differentiate and individualise as they all become more and more similar.

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    On an unrelated note LifeArt coffins were featured in this article on "Worlds Wackiest Coffins" over at Oddee.  It is interesting how the website talked of them as "going out in style" when really their 'style' is only superficial.

Modernising Death - Looking at the modern crematorium

    Death is becoming a very 'modern' operation, no different to other big industries like tourism.  As a result there is a lot of uniformity, conformity and predictability in the funeral industry.  And the various crematorium are a good example of this.  They were built at different times in different places by different groups, yet they share many similarities.


    The 'funeral gaze' has a great influence on the industry.  As a lecturer once said, the gaze is "not somebody staring.  It's staring with intent.  Somebody staring with an idea to change things".  It is the influence the people have on what they see and experience.  The gaze is simultaneously encapsulates what is seen and the way it is seen (Perkins & Thorns, 2001, p. 187).  So mourners have a great influence on the funeral industry through their gaze.

    But the funeral industry also has its own influence on the mourners.  The funeral industry manipulates the funeral gaze.  This is because the industry only lives if the funeral gaze is regular and predictable (Pagenstecher, 2003, p. 1).  If the gaze was unpredictable funeral parlours, crematoriums, cemeteries and so on could not sell or market themselves effectively.  And InvoCare (along with others in the industry) realise this and manipulate it through various processes such as theming and dedifferentiation (Bryman, 1999; Pagenstecher, 2003, p. 1). 


    This manipulation is achieved through the concept of Disneyization and McDonaldization.  These concepts refer to the never-ending process, and outcome of the process, of control over every aspect of an image on a massive and local level.  While there are similarities between these two concepts, the difference is that while McDonaldization is about efficiency, calculability, predictability and (most importantly) control.  Whereas Disneyization is about theming, dedifferentiation, merchandising and (most importantly) emotional labour (McCall G. 2., 2010).

    Theming is a common, and the most obvious, form of Disneyization (Bryman, 1999, p. 29).  Theming simply is the productization of an organisation, such as the use of a logo or specific font.  One way to see this in the funeral industry is in the crematoriums.  Crematoriums were often built at different times and for different reasons across Sydney.  We can see this by looking at four main crematoriums in Sydney.  The first is Rookwood Gardens is the oldest operating crematorium in Sydney.  Established in 1925 it accommodated those who could not afford a burial and to cope with a higher volume of deceased than cemeteries could.  The second is Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park (ESMP) crematorium was opened in 1938 to deal with returning soldiers.  The third is Northern Suburbs crematorium, opened in 1922.  The fourth is Macquarie Park crematorium.  Opened in 2004 it was a radically new design and operating procedures aimed at covering as many services as possible, in an efficient and modern way.  Nothing like it had been buit in Sydney before.

    These four crematoriums are in different parts of the city, run by different organisation, built at different times and for different reasons.  Yet their themes, logos and setup are all very similar..  They name their chapels based on points of the compas, such as 'North Chapel' or 'West Chapel'.  They use similar colours, browns, pastels and creme.  But not all four are like this.  Macquarie Park names its chapels after plants, such as 'Palm Chapel' and 'Magnolia Chapel'.  It also uses different colours such as whites, blue and some silvers.  And while the other crematoriums use carpet or wooden floors Macquarie Park uses white tiled floors.  They are even set up the same way, from the way in which you or the hearse enters to where you sit and where the coffin is placed.  There is a asile down the center leading to a stage area surrounded by a curtain.  The stage area is in a recess, indented into the wall at the front and surrounded by a curtain.  The stage has a 'catafalque' on which to place the coffin.  The catafalque is raised so everyone can see it clearly from anywhere in the room.  The hearse can pull right up to the front door and there is parking for mourner cars nearby.  Macquarie Park is different, it is the only one which has a catafalque that is on wheels.  It is the only one which has awnings in front of every chapel and the only one with large modern glass windows and doors with aluminium frames.  And yet most people would see it as any other crematorium.  The logos at all four are of either bird, flower or a sunset and with simple clean lines and colours.  Every crematorium logo is similar to the point of being interchangeable.  But they reflect the industry on a larger level.  They are badges that show who owns and runs the crematoriums and what they are like.  The similarity of these badges reflects the similarity of the groups who run the crematoriums.

    These crematorium employ similar yet different themes to illustrate how they sell the same product, but are different companies.  This gives the impression that they are different places with different experiences and 'products'.  After all, if they all used the exact same themes then people could not differentiate between them.  And people want difference, and a newness, but not to lose touch with what’s known (McCall G. 2., 2010).

    McDonaldization is also apparent in these four crematorium.  The way the service procedes is basically the same in every place.  Everything is predictable and tightly controlled by the staff and by the process itself.  The funeral staff will arrive with the hearse, inform the crematorium staff of their arrival and exchange paperwork.  This paperwork is the same in each crematorium.  Depending on family wishes the funeral staff and/or the family will then carry the coffin into the chapel and place it on the catafalque.  They will say a few words, prayers or whatever they wish, sometimes placing flowers or memorabilia on the coffin as they either enter or exit.  Finally, about 20 to 45 minutes later the curtains are closed and the service is over.  The coffin is then taken into a back room where it is either stored in a fridge to be cremated at a later date or cremated right away.  It is the same, predictable formule in every place and does not vary much.

    The staff, both crematorium and funeral (who are usually from different organisations) keep everything in order.  Working together to do so.  They keep people out of the chapels until the place is ready and set up, they organise the paperwork, they make sure everything runs as it should.  But they do this because of tight rules and procedures.  The consequences for not filling out the right papers in the right way are quite serious, as you can imagine.  Treating the family differently, such as taking them into the chapel too early or late, can again have consequences.  If anything does not go according to the formule then the mourners become upset, even if they do not know the formule.  Everything is tightly controlled and efficient.

    So we can see that the four crematorium all have clear signs of Disneyfication and McDonaldization.  They are uniformed and predictable in almost every way.  Thus we would think there was little originality or differentiation between them and between the services.  As Guneratne highlights, this idea is a superficial simplistic view (Guneratne, 2001, p. 230).  If anything, dedifferentiation and globalisation polarize and emphasise the local differences (Guneratne, 2001).  In other words globalisation does not create a global culture, but rather it “reinscribes locality in new ways” (Guneratne, 2001, p. 527).  And this is the same with the funeral industry.  The conformity reinforces their differences, what makes them individual.

    Going back to the logos we see that although each one is very similar to the other, they are all different and emphasise who runs the crematorium.  Their procedures are slightly different, and these slight differences are most important to each place.  How the hearse pulls up to the chapel, where and how the papers are done, where the mourners park, etc is all different at each place.  But more importantly the staff and design of the crematorium is the biggest difference.  Not only do the staff wear different uniforms but they practice different procedures.  For example at ESMP the staff will charge extra for showing others how to use the AudioVisual system in the chapels and then leave.  While at Macquarie Park the staff will be present for the whole service and run the AudioVisual system themselves, for no extra cost.  Macquarie Park did this deliberately to be different from the other crematorium, to give the mourners something they will not get at another place.  They also offer different services to go along with the funeral.  Macquarie Park has catered function rooms within easy walking distance of the chapels and will record the whole service for families.  It highlights the modern features and designes of the crematorium.  Rookwood Gardens contrastingly emphasises its history and garden settings.  And it does not make any attempt to offer a function room or encourage the recording of funerals.


    Crematoriums are a modern organisation comparable to the tourism industry.  They package and sell a product like any other company.  The only real difference being that the product they sell is a funeral service.  As a result there is a lot of conformity and similarity between the crematoriums.  However this only forces them to reinforce why they are different, what makes them unique.  If they all offered the exact same product then there would be no way for people to chose between them.  And people like choice, even if it is just an illusion.  So long as the choice does not come at the cost of what is expected.


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References for further reading:

Bryman, A. (1999). The Disneyization of society. The Sociological Review , 46 (1), 25-47.

Guneratne, A. (2001). Shaping the tourist's gaze: Representing ethnic difference in a Nepalese village. Journal of the Royal Anthropologist Institute , 527-543.

McCall, G. 1. (2010, 3 31). Tourism as a development strategy. SOCA3106 Unpublished Lecture . UNSW.

McCall, G. 2. (2010, 4 28). The “tourist gaze”, industrialisation and accommodation: Guides and hopes for the safe adventure. SOCA3106 Unpublished Lecture . UNSW.

Pagenstecher, C. (2003). The construction of the tourist gaze. How industrial was post-war German tourism? In L. Tissot, Construction d'une industrie touristique au 19e et 20e siècles. Perspectives internationales. Development of a Tourist Industry in the 19th and 20th Centuries (pp. 373-389). Neuchâtel, International Perspectives.'

Perkins, H., & Thorns, D. (2001). Gazing or performing: Reflections on Urry's tourist gaze in the context of contermporary experience in the Antipodes. International Sociology , 16 (2), 185-204.

Urry, J. (2001). Globalizing the tourist gaze. Lancaster LA 1 4YN, UK: Department of Sociology.