Introduction

This special issue is an outcome of the international interdisciplinary conference organised by the ERC project The Roles of the Agency of the Dead in the Lives of Individuals in Contemporary Society (DEAGENCY, No. 101095729; 2023–2028), the aim of which is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the roles of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary Western society, with a particular focus on post-socialist countries. Rather than viewing the dead as mere expressions of “folk belief”, or symbols and metaphors for larger cultural and social problems and changes, as tends to be the case in scholarly approaches to “ghosts” and “hauntings”, this project will view the dead as being actively involved in the intricate relationships between individuals and larger social and cultural processes. It will focus on how individuals are affected by the dead (and vice versa): in what way they affect their thoughts, values and behaviour; how they are involved in their social relations with others; and what impact their effect may have on an individual in a wider social, cultural and political context.