Editors' introduction: Since last We spoke…

As Administrative Theory & Praxis's Dialogues series on COVID-19 continues, we reflect on where we have come and where we are going while previewing new pieces in the series.

When Deaths Are Dehumanized: Deathcare During COVID-19 as a Public Value Failure

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is still gripping the world, brought death front and center into many people?s lives. In the United States, however, some of the deaths were treated as ?more tragic? than others given someone?s economic use value coupled with dehumanizing language. Using Debord?s Society of the Spectacle, this is understood as a public values failure when economic productivity eclipses public health and humanity. Introducing a conceptual framework, this article explores this death narrative and implores public administrators to think about death management in a humane framing.

The need for innovation in deathcare leadership

Purpose The purpose of this viewpoint essay is to examine deathcare leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend innovations to employ a more human-centric approach. Design/methodology/approach This viewpoint essay uses scholarly and popular literature to explore deathcare practices during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to identify limitations of existing mass fatality management policies. Findings Deathcare leadership in the USA lacks a human-centric approach. Rationalistic mass fatality management during COVID-19 left families struggling with grief and mourning because many burial rituals could not take place. This essay suggests a humanistic approach to death management through leadership innovations as a remedy to this problem. Such leadership innovations can improve responses to deathcare during this ongoing pandemic and future public health emergencies. Originality/value This essay offers practical improvements to make deathcare more human-centric.

Editors’ introduction: Since last We spoke…

As Administrative Theory & Praxis's Dialogues series on COVID-19 continues, we reflect on where we have come and where we are going while previewing new pieces in the series.

“We've Cared for the Dead since We Started Caring”: COVID‐19 and Our Relationship to Public and Private Deathcare

The COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted public organizations’ challenges related to deathcare. Within the emergency management literature, and specifically within public administration, there is a gap when it comes to planning past death. Using data from interviews with 35 municipal cemetery managers throughout the United States, I show how our unwillingness to talk about or plan for death, coupled with cemetery managers who are underfunded and often left out of emergency management planning processes, needs increased attention. While many deathcare best practices were deployed to respond to the virus, cemetery managers often are not part of the planning process.

Editor’s introduction: Our public service manifesto during pandemic

In this Editor's Introduction, we write during the COVID-19 pandemic response this manifesto for public service.