Ecological afterlives: media and legal co-production of terramation and natural burial

This article examines how media discourse and legal frameworks are co-producing these new ecological afterlife practices, focusing on the interplay between public narratives and regulatory change. The article situates these developments within the historically specific Czech funeral context, where high cremation rates, secularisation and dissatisfaction with standardised civil rituals have produced a search for more meaningful and participatory forms of farewell. Czech activists, funeral professionals and even mainstream journalists have begun to challenge the status quo of nearly automatic cremation by highlighting greener, more personal alternatives. At the same time, Czech policymakers are grappling with how to update funeral laws – originally written for traditional burial and cremation – to accommodate practices like burial in biodegradable shrouds or, in the future, the composting of human remains. This co-production process is not one-sided: media portrayals shape public sentiment and put pressure on lawmakers, while legal institutions’ responses (whether restrictive or enabling) in turn influence how these practices are implemented and discussed. By analysing both discourse and policy, we can observe regulation and cultural imagination evolving together in real time.