Actual and perceived social isolation are both associated with increased risk for early mortality. In this meta-analytic review, our objective is to establish the overall and relative magnitude of social isolation and loneliness and to examine possible moderators. We conducted a literature search of studies (January 1980 to February 2014) using MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, and Google Scholar. The included studies provided quantitative data on mortality as affected by loneliness, social isolation, or living alone. Across studies in which several possible confounds were statistically controlled for, the weighted average effect sizes were as follows: social isolation odds ratio (OR) = 1.29, loneliness OR = 1.26, and living alone OR = 1.32, corresponding to an average of 29%, 26%, and 32% increased likelihood of mortality, respectively. We found no differences between measures of objective and subjective social isolation. Results remain consistent across gender, length of follow-up, and world region, but initial health status has an influence on the findings. Results also differ across participant age, with social deficits being more predictive of death in samples with an average age younger than 65 years. Overall, the influence of both objective and subjective social isolation on risk for mortality is comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality.

/pdf/loneliness-and-social-isolation-as-risk-factors-for-1j47bq05zi.pdf

Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality: A Meta-Analytic Review

This 1966 paperback edition of a publication which first appeared in 1963 has by now been widely reviewed as a worthy contribution to the sociological study of deviant behavior. Its current appearance as a paperback is a testimonial both to the quality of the work and to the prominence of deviant behavior in this generation. In general the author places deviance in perspective, identifies types of deviant behavior, considers the role of rule makers and enforcers, and some of the problems in studying deviance. In addition, he develops a sequential model of deviance relying on the concept of career, a concept originally developed in studies of occupations. In his study of a particular kind of deviance, the use of marihuana, the author posits and tests systematically an hypothesis about the genesis of marihuana use for pleasure. The hypothesis traces the sequence of changes in individual attitude

Outsiders Studies in the Sociology of Deviance.

Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation

Heat is an environmental and occupational hazard. The prevention of deaths in the community caused by extreme high temperatures (heat waves) is now an issue of public health concern. The risk of heat-related mortality increases with natural aging, but persons with particular social and/or physical vulnerability are also at risk. Important differences in vulnerability exist between populations, depending on climate, culture, infrastructure (housing), and other factors. Public health measures include health promotion and heat wave warning systems, but the effectiveness of acute measures in response to heat waves has not yet been formally evaluated. Climate change will increase the frequency and the intensity of heat waves, and a range of measures, including improvements to housing, management of chronic diseases, and institutional care of the elderly and the vulnerable, will need to be developed to reduce health impacts.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090843

Heat Stress and Public Health: A Critical Review

The effect of elevated temperature on mortality is a public health threat of considerable magnitude. Every year, a large number of hospitalizations and deaths occur in association with exposure to elevated ambient temperatures (1, 2). An average of 400 deaths annually are counted as directly related to heat in the United States, with the highest death rates occurring in persons aged 65 years or more (3). The actual magnitude of heat-related mortality may be notably greater than what has been reported, since we do not have widely accepted criteria for determining heat-related death (4, 5–7), and heat may not be listed on the death certificate as causing or contributing to death. Persons living in urban environments may be at particularly increased risk for mortality from ambient heat exposure, since urban areas typically have higher heat indexes (combinations of temperature and humidity (8)) than surrounding suburban or rural areas, a phenomenon known as the “urban heat island effect” (9). Moreover, urban areas retain heat during the night more efficiently (10). Thus, as the US population becomes more urbanized and the number of elderly people continues to increase (11), the threat of heat-related mortality will probably become more severe. Many of these deaths may be preventable with adequate warning and an appropriate response to heat emergencies, but preventive efforts are complicated by the short time interval that may elapse between high temperature exposure and death. Thus, prevention programs must be based around prospective and rapid identification of high-risk conditions and persons. We carried out this review to assess the current epidemiologic evidence available for this purpose.

Relation between Elevated Ambient Temperature and Mortality: A Review of the Epidemiologic Evidence

In July 1995, Chicagoans suffered through a blistering week-long heat wave that buckled streets and downed portions of the city's power grid. It also left over 700 people dead. In this alarming book, Eric Klinenberg tells us how such fatalities could have happened in a modern American city. The picture he paints - of social breakdown, unresponsive government and poorly equipped public services - is one no reader interested in the current state of American urbanism can afford to ignore.

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

An alternative anthropology: exercising the preferential option of the poor / Leigh Binford

Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology

Bringing together essays from the controversial Berkeley conference of the same name, "The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness" presents a fascinating range of inquiry into the nature of whiteness as an identity crosscut by race. Representing academics, independent scholars, community organisers, and anti-racist activists, the contributors are all leaders in the 'second wave' of whiteness studies who collectively aim to combat the historical legacies of white supremacy and to inform those who seek to understand the changing nature of white identity, both in the United States and abroad. With essays devoted to theories of racial domination, comparative global racisms, trans-national white identity, and post-apartheid South Africa, the geographical reach of the volume is significant and broad. Dalton Conley writes on 'How I Learned to Be White'. Alan Berube discusses the intersection of gay identity and whiteness, and Mab Segrest describes the terrible spiritual price white people pay for living in a system of white supremacy. Other pieces examine the utility of whiteness as a critical term for social analysis, contextualise different attempts at antiracist activism, and explore how whiteness affects those seen as racially privileged. In a razor sharp introduction, the editors not only raise provocative questions about the intellectual, social, and political goals of those interested in the study of whiteness but hone in on several of the topic's major recurrent themes: the visibility (or lack thereof) of whiteness; the 'emptiness' of whiteness as a category of identification; and, conceptions of whiteness as a structural privilege, a harbinger of violence, or an institutionalisation of European imperialism. Contributors of this title include: William Aal, Allan Berube, Brigit Brander Rasmussen, Dalton Conley, Troy Duster, Ruth Frankenberg, John Hartigan Jr., Eric Klinenberg, Eric Lott, Irene J. Nexica, Michael Omi, Jasbir Kaur Puar, Mab Segrest, Vron Ware, Howard Winant, and Matt Wray.

The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness

A paradox of contemporary sociology is that the discipline has largely abandoned the empirical study of journalistic organizations and news institutions at the moment when the media has gained visibility in political, economic, and cultural spheres; when other academic fields have embraced the study of media and society; and when leading sociological theorists have broken from the disciplinary cannon to argue that the media are key actors in modern life. This article examines the point of journalistic production in one major news organization and shows how reportersand editors manage constraints of time, space, and market pressure under regimes of convergence news making. It considers the implications of these conditions for the particular forms of intellectual and cultural labor that journalists produce, drawing connections between the political economy of the journalistic field, the organizational structure of multimedia firms, new communications technologies, and the qualities of content created by med...

Eric Klinenberg

Papers

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology

The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness

Convergence: News Production in a Digital Age: