Work

Lives worth living

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Death, dying, and grieving are integral dimensions of everyday life in the powerchair hockey (PCH) community. PCH is a team sport for people with physical disabilities whose average life expectancy is lower than 30 years. Drawing on an ethnography of PCH in Switzerland and informed by symbolic interactionism, this study aims to understand the collective work done throughout the death trajectory of players within the PCH community and the meanings that emerge through these practices. Players frame the trajectories of death that occur within the PCH community in opposition to the way outsiders perceive their deaths. As their health worsens and new disabilities emerge, players adapt their role and adjust their participation in PCH, striving to remain useful to the group. When a player dies, those involved in PCH celebrate their lives and memories, and these rituals allow players to prepare for their deaths. Grieving deceased players and honoring their legacy gives value to their lives, in contrast to broader narratives outside the PCH, that may deem their lives of little value or even not worth living. Additionally, this social organization of death is also performative of the value of players’ lives. Thus, the players become grievable, thereby contributing to a reversal of stigma.

Source: Alter

DOI: 10.4000/14qxj

Author: Laurent Paccaud

Institution: University of Lausanne

Language: English

Topic: Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,000