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The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier
A “powerful and provocative” inquiry into the relationship between societies’ inequality and their citizens’ health, happiness and well-being (Lisa Berkman, Harvard School of Public Health).
Comparing the United States with other market democracies, and one American state with another, this book presents irrefutable evidence that inequality is a driver of poor health, social conflict, and violence. Pioneering social scientist Richard Wilkinson addresses the growing feeling―so common in the United States―that modern societies, despite their material success, are social failures. The Impact of Inequality explains why inequality has such devastating effects on the quality and length of our lives.
Wilkinson shows that inequality leads to stress, which in turn creates sickness on the individual and mass level. As a consequence, society suffers widespread unhappiness and high levels of violence, depression, and mistrust across the social spectrum. With persuasive evidence and fascinating analysis, the diagnosis is Social and political equality are essential to improving life for everyone. Wilkinson argues that even small reductions in inequality can make an important difference―for, as this book explains, social relations are always built on material foundations.
“This new book, a wonderful work of synthesis, brings insight into how conditions of society impact on people’s daily lives. . . . It is a stimulating and exciting book.” ―Sir Michael Marmot, author of The Status Syndrome
Comparing the United States with other market democracies, and one American state with another, this book presents irrefutable evidence that inequality is a driver of poor health, social conflict, and violence. Pioneering social scientist Richard Wilkinson addresses the growing feeling―so common in the United States―that modern societies, despite their material success, are social failures. The Impact of Inequality explains why inequality has such devastating effects on the quality and length of our lives.
Wilkinson shows that inequality leads to stress, which in turn creates sickness on the individual and mass level. As a consequence, society suffers widespread unhappiness and high levels of violence, depression, and mistrust across the social spectrum. With persuasive evidence and fascinating analysis, the diagnosis is Social and political equality are essential to improving life for everyone. Wilkinson argues that even small reductions in inequality can make an important difference―for, as this book explains, social relations are always built on material foundations.
“This new book, a wonderful work of synthesis, brings insight into how conditions of society impact on people’s daily lives. . . . It is a stimulating and exciting book.” ―Sir Michael Marmot, author of The Status Syndrome
355 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Richard G. Wilkinson
70 books122 followersRichard G. Wilkinson (Richard Gerald Wilkinson; born 1943) is a British researcher in social inequalities in health and the social determinants of health. He is Professor Emeritus of social epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, having retired in 2008. He is also Honorary Professor at University College London.
He is best known for his 2009 book (with Kate Pickett) The Spirit Level, in which he argues that societies with more a equal distribution of incomes have better health outcomes than ones in which the gap between richest and poorest parts society is greater. His 1996 book Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality had made the same argument a decade earlier.
He is best known for his 2009 book (with Kate Pickett) The Spirit Level, in which he argues that societies with more a equal distribution of incomes have better health outcomes than ones in which the gap between richest and poorest parts society is greater. His 1996 book Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality had made the same argument a decade earlier.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
aborted
May 5, 2018Pages 245-354 are missing so I'm aborting. It wasn't quite as interesting as I was hoping for, anyway. Dozens upon dozens of studies quoted, some of them animal studies, and many of them decades old. Much more sociology than health policy.
January 9, 2021
----------------English Review----------------
The book is excellent in different aspects! It is definitely an excellent source of information on the subject social inequality and a good reference in the field of humanities. It is essential for all those who seek to understand the vicissitudes, developments, causes and motivations of social inequality.
At first, it is worth mentioning that it is a work of scientific nature, which presents conclusions and proposals from different researches in different areas, such as sociology, public health, medicine and psychology, for example.
That said, because it is interdisciplinary, the work achieves academic excellence. It is known that nowadays studies must be increasingly interconnected between different areas in order to become a reliable source of information, providing a closer picture of the reality of society, which, due to its increasing complexity, must be observed from from different points of view. This interdisciplinarity of the study left me extremely satisfied with the content presented, reminding me of the article " Interdisciplinarity: A Critical Assessment " published by " Annual Review of Sociology ", which talks a little about the importance of interdisciplinarity in scientific studies.
For this reason, I judge it as an excellent source of information for academic works in different areas, and as informative reading for anyone who wants to study the subject or better understand the social relationships in which we currently live. It is not an easy book to be read by those who seek only a distraction, it will be a tiring reading and actually a study on the subject.
The book is divided into chapters that deal with different issues of social inequality. I was mainly interested in topics on violence and on people's health, which are, in turn, very well elaborated! The author makes useful references to criminological studies and the impacts of epidemiological revolutions in different countries, with regard to health determinants.
I gave the book four stars because I believe that two criticisms can be made: the first refers to the North Americanized and Europeanized view of the study, and the second, regarding the date of its publication.
First of all, the study does not take much into account societies in developing countries in the Southern Hemisphere or the East. I missed some mentions about the Latin American, Asian and African realities. Although there are mentions about nations belonging to these territories, and although the study largely manages to cover these realities from what was studied, Wilkinson often resorted to material reality to explain the effects of social and economic inequality and, as we know, in the countries mentioned, material conditions are very different from those presented in countries in Europe or Anglo-Saxon America; these, in turn, offered much of the samples and data that were applied to the results (but there is also mention of countries formerly members of the USSR). Therefore, the lack of specific mention makes the study incomplete when it comes to understanding the impacts of inequality in general - but that does not render the book useless!
Second, the publication date of the book, in a way, makes it out of date. You see: we have a work focused on studies on the socioeconomic and material conditions of different communities in the world, which was published in 2005. Now, how much has society changed in these 16 years? The technological revolution has made us more connected than ever, which has drastically altered social relationships, technologies have taken over our lives, altering our material conditions like never before, and the concentration of income has proved to be a progressive process, since inequality between rich and poor produces an ever-widening social abysm. It is obvious that there will be other factors to be considered in order to arrive at a study like the one made by Wilkinson at the time! And in no way does this observation devalue the quality of the work, but rather produces a warning about its relevance today, which has been altered precisely by the inconstancy of a world knocked out by a pandemic, tainted by growing social tyranny, infested by frightening technology and manipulated by the mass media.
That said, I decided that I would take away 0.9 stars for the first observation, and 0.1 stars for the second observation, since the last one does not necessarily refer to the quality of the work.
Therefore, I rate the work with 4 stars and recommend it for academics, scholars or curious, but never for those who want to relax! And know that my countrymen from Latin America should look for complementary sources to understand our reality, as well as readers in Africa and Asia. Finally: I hope that those who find this review useful will be able to enjoy this excellent academic and scientific work as much as I did!
-------------Avaliação em Português-------------
O livro é excelente em diferentes aspectos! É definitivamente uma excelente fonte de informações acerca do assunto tratado (desigualdade social) e uma referência no campo das ciências humanas. É essencial para todos aqueles que buscam compreender sobre as vicissitudes, desdobramentos, causas e motivações da desigualdade social.
De início, vale ressaltar que é uma obra de cunho científico, que apresenta conclusões e propostas a partir de diferentes pesquisas em diferentes áreas, como sociologia, saúde pública, medicina e psicologia, por exemplo.
Dito isso, por ser interdisciplinar, a obra atinge a excelência acadêmica. Sabe-se que hoje em dia os estudos devem ser cada vez mais interligados entre diferentes áreas para que se tornem uma fonte de informações fidedigna, proporcionando um retrato mais aproximado da realidade da sociedade, que, por sua crescente complexidade, deve ser observada a partir de diferentes pontos de vista. Essa interdisciplinaridade do estudo me deixou extremamente satisfeito com o conteúdo apresentado, lembrando-me do artigo "Interdisciplinarity: A Critical Assessment" publicado pela "Annual Review of Sociology", que fala um pouco sobre a importância da interdisciplinaridade em estudos científicos.
Por isso, julgo como excelente fonte de informações para trabalhos acadêmicos em diferentes áreas, e como leitura informativa para qualquer um que deseje estudar o assunto ou compreender melhor as relações sociais em que vivemos atualmente. Não é um livro fácil ou leve para ser lido pelo leitor que busca apenas distrair-se, será uma leitura cansativa, por aproximar-se de um estudo.
O livro é dividido em capítulos que versam sobre diferentes questões da desigualdade social. Interessei-me principalmente nos tópicos sobre violência e sobre a saúde das pessoas, que são, por sua vez, muito bem elaborados! O autor faz úteis menções a estudos criminológicos e aos impactos das revoluções epidemiológicas em diferentes países, no que se refere aos determinantes de saúde.
Dei ao livro quatro estrelas pois acredito que duas críticas podem ser feitas: a primeira se refere à visão norte-americanizada e europeizada do estudo, e a segunda, quanto à data de sua publicação.
Primeiramente, o estudo não leva muito em consideração sociedades de países em desenvolvimento do Hemisfério Sul ou do Oriente. Eu senti falta de menções às realidades latino-americana, asiática e africana. Apesar de haver, sim, menções sobre nações pertencentes a esses territórios, e apesar de o estudo conseguir, em grande parte, abranger essas realidades a partir do que foi estudado, muitas vezes Wilkinson recorreu à realidade material para explicar os efeitos da desigualdade social e, como sabemos, nos países mencionados, as condições materiais são muito destoantes daquelas apresentadas em países da Europa ou da América Anglo-Saxônica; estes, por sua vez, ofereceram grande parte do espaço amostral e dos dados que foram aplicados nos resultados (mas há também menção a países ex-integrantes da URSS). Portanto, a falta de menção específica torna o estudo incompleto quando falamos na compreensão dos impactos da desigualdade de maneira geral - mas nem por isso o livro é inutilizado!
Em segundo lugar, a data de publicação do livro, de certa forma, o torna desatualizado. Veja bem: temos uma obra voltada para os estudos sobre as condições socioeconômicas e materiais de diferentes comunidades no mundo, que foi publicada em 2005. Ora, o quanto a sociedade já não mudou nesses 16 anos? A revolução tecnológica nos tornou mais conectados do que nunca, o que alterou drasticamente as relações sociais, as tecnologias tomaram nossas vidas, alterando nossas condições materiais como nunca antes visto, e a concentração de renda demonstrou ser um processo progressivo, visto que a desigualdade entre ricos e pobres produz um abismo social cada dia mais gigantesco. É óbvio que haverão outros fatores a serem considerados para se chegar a um estudo como o feito por Wilkinson na época! E de forma alguma essa nota desvaloriza a qualidade da obra, mas sim alerta um pouco sobre sua relevância nos dias de hoje, que foi alterada justamente pela inconstância de um mundo nocauteado por uma pandemia, maculado pela tirania social crescente, infestado por uma tecnologia assustadora e manipulado pelos meios de comunicação em massa.
Dito isso, decidi que tiraria 0,9 estrela por causa da primeira observação, e 0,1 estrela da segunda observação, visto que a derradeira não se refere, necessariamente, à qualidade da obra.
Portanto, avalio a obra com 4 estrelas e a indico para acadêmicos, estudiosos ou curiosos, mas nunca para os que querem se descontrair! E saibam que meus conterrâneos da América Latina deverão buscar fontes complementares para compreender nossa realidade, bem como os leitores na África e na Ásia.Finalmente: espero que aqueles que considerem essa avaliação útil consigam aproveitar essa excelente obra acadêmica e científica tanto quanto eu!
The book is excellent in different aspects! It is definitely an excellent source of information on the subject social inequality and a good reference in the field of humanities. It is essential for all those who seek to understand the vicissitudes, developments, causes and motivations of social inequality.
At first, it is worth mentioning that it is a work of scientific nature, which presents conclusions and proposals from different researches in different areas, such as sociology, public health, medicine and psychology, for example.
That said, because it is interdisciplinary, the work achieves academic excellence. It is known that nowadays studies must be increasingly interconnected between different areas in order to become a reliable source of information, providing a closer picture of the reality of society, which, due to its increasing complexity, must be observed from from different points of view. This interdisciplinarity of the study left me extremely satisfied with the content presented, reminding me of the article " Interdisciplinarity: A Critical Assessment " published by " Annual Review of Sociology ", which talks a little about the importance of interdisciplinarity in scientific studies.
For this reason, I judge it as an excellent source of information for academic works in different areas, and as informative reading for anyone who wants to study the subject or better understand the social relationships in which we currently live. It is not an easy book to be read by those who seek only a distraction, it will be a tiring reading and actually a study on the subject.
The book is divided into chapters that deal with different issues of social inequality. I was mainly interested in topics on violence and on people's health, which are, in turn, very well elaborated! The author makes useful references to criminological studies and the impacts of epidemiological revolutions in different countries, with regard to health determinants.
I gave the book four stars because I believe that two criticisms can be made: the first refers to the North Americanized and Europeanized view of the study, and the second, regarding the date of its publication.
First of all, the study does not take much into account societies in developing countries in the Southern Hemisphere or the East. I missed some mentions about the Latin American, Asian and African realities. Although there are mentions about nations belonging to these territories, and although the study largely manages to cover these realities from what was studied, Wilkinson often resorted to material reality to explain the effects of social and economic inequality and, as we know, in the countries mentioned, material conditions are very different from those presented in countries in Europe or Anglo-Saxon America; these, in turn, offered much of the samples and data that were applied to the results (but there is also mention of countries formerly members of the USSR). Therefore, the lack of specific mention makes the study incomplete when it comes to understanding the impacts of inequality in general - but that does not render the book useless!
Second, the publication date of the book, in a way, makes it out of date. You see: we have a work focused on studies on the socioeconomic and material conditions of different communities in the world, which was published in 2005. Now, how much has society changed in these 16 years? The technological revolution has made us more connected than ever, which has drastically altered social relationships, technologies have taken over our lives, altering our material conditions like never before, and the concentration of income has proved to be a progressive process, since inequality between rich and poor produces an ever-widening social abysm. It is obvious that there will be other factors to be considered in order to arrive at a study like the one made by Wilkinson at the time! And in no way does this observation devalue the quality of the work, but rather produces a warning about its relevance today, which has been altered precisely by the inconstancy of a world knocked out by a pandemic, tainted by growing social tyranny, infested by frightening technology and manipulated by the mass media.
That said, I decided that I would take away 0.9 stars for the first observation, and 0.1 stars for the second observation, since the last one does not necessarily refer to the quality of the work.
Therefore, I rate the work with 4 stars and recommend it for academics, scholars or curious, but never for those who want to relax! And know that my countrymen from Latin America should look for complementary sources to understand our reality, as well as readers in Africa and Asia. Finally: I hope that those who find this review useful will be able to enjoy this excellent academic and scientific work as much as I did!
-------------Avaliação em Português-------------
O livro é excelente em diferentes aspectos! É definitivamente uma excelente fonte de informações acerca do assunto tratado (desigualdade social) e uma referência no campo das ciências humanas. É essencial para todos aqueles que buscam compreender sobre as vicissitudes, desdobramentos, causas e motivações da desigualdade social.
De início, vale ressaltar que é uma obra de cunho científico, que apresenta conclusões e propostas a partir de diferentes pesquisas em diferentes áreas, como sociologia, saúde pública, medicina e psicologia, por exemplo.
Dito isso, por ser interdisciplinar, a obra atinge a excelência acadêmica. Sabe-se que hoje em dia os estudos devem ser cada vez mais interligados entre diferentes áreas para que se tornem uma fonte de informações fidedigna, proporcionando um retrato mais aproximado da realidade da sociedade, que, por sua crescente complexidade, deve ser observada a partir de diferentes pontos de vista. Essa interdisciplinaridade do estudo me deixou extremamente satisfeito com o conteúdo apresentado, lembrando-me do artigo "Interdisciplinarity: A Critical Assessment" publicado pela "Annual Review of Sociology", que fala um pouco sobre a importância da interdisciplinaridade em estudos científicos.
Por isso, julgo como excelente fonte de informações para trabalhos acadêmicos em diferentes áreas, e como leitura informativa para qualquer um que deseje estudar o assunto ou compreender melhor as relações sociais em que vivemos atualmente. Não é um livro fácil ou leve para ser lido pelo leitor que busca apenas distrair-se, será uma leitura cansativa, por aproximar-se de um estudo.
O livro é dividido em capítulos que versam sobre diferentes questões da desigualdade social. Interessei-me principalmente nos tópicos sobre violência e sobre a saúde das pessoas, que são, por sua vez, muito bem elaborados! O autor faz úteis menções a estudos criminológicos e aos impactos das revoluções epidemiológicas em diferentes países, no que se refere aos determinantes de saúde.
Dei ao livro quatro estrelas pois acredito que duas críticas podem ser feitas: a primeira se refere à visão norte-americanizada e europeizada do estudo, e a segunda, quanto à data de sua publicação.
Primeiramente, o estudo não leva muito em consideração sociedades de países em desenvolvimento do Hemisfério Sul ou do Oriente. Eu senti falta de menções às realidades latino-americana, asiática e africana. Apesar de haver, sim, menções sobre nações pertencentes a esses territórios, e apesar de o estudo conseguir, em grande parte, abranger essas realidades a partir do que foi estudado, muitas vezes Wilkinson recorreu à realidade material para explicar os efeitos da desigualdade social e, como sabemos, nos países mencionados, as condições materiais são muito destoantes daquelas apresentadas em países da Europa ou da América Anglo-Saxônica; estes, por sua vez, ofereceram grande parte do espaço amostral e dos dados que foram aplicados nos resultados (mas há também menção a países ex-integrantes da URSS). Portanto, a falta de menção específica torna o estudo incompleto quando falamos na compreensão dos impactos da desigualdade de maneira geral - mas nem por isso o livro é inutilizado!
Em segundo lugar, a data de publicação do livro, de certa forma, o torna desatualizado. Veja bem: temos uma obra voltada para os estudos sobre as condições socioeconômicas e materiais de diferentes comunidades no mundo, que foi publicada em 2005. Ora, o quanto a sociedade já não mudou nesses 16 anos? A revolução tecnológica nos tornou mais conectados do que nunca, o que alterou drasticamente as relações sociais, as tecnologias tomaram nossas vidas, alterando nossas condições materiais como nunca antes visto, e a concentração de renda demonstrou ser um processo progressivo, visto que a desigualdade entre ricos e pobres produz um abismo social cada dia mais gigantesco. É óbvio que haverão outros fatores a serem considerados para se chegar a um estudo como o feito por Wilkinson na época! E de forma alguma essa nota desvaloriza a qualidade da obra, mas sim alerta um pouco sobre sua relevância nos dias de hoje, que foi alterada justamente pela inconstância de um mundo nocauteado por uma pandemia, maculado pela tirania social crescente, infestado por uma tecnologia assustadora e manipulado pelos meios de comunicação em massa.
Dito isso, decidi que tiraria 0,9 estrela por causa da primeira observação, e 0,1 estrela da segunda observação, visto que a derradeira não se refere, necessariamente, à qualidade da obra.
Portanto, avalio a obra com 4 estrelas e a indico para acadêmicos, estudiosos ou curiosos, mas nunca para os que querem se descontrair! E saibam que meus conterrâneos da América Latina deverão buscar fontes complementares para compreender nossa realidade, bem como os leitores na África e na Ásia.Finalmente: espero que aqueles que considerem essa avaliação útil consigam aproveitar essa excelente obra acadêmica e científica tanto quanto eu!
November 15, 2007
Inequality within our societies makes everyone unhappier, and not only that, it puts us at higher risk for disease too! who knew?
Read it for school, I enjoyed it, but sometimes Wilkinson would be a little...repetitive. And sometimes he would say things that made me a little cross, but I'm glad I read it. It broadened my horizons.
Read it for school, I enjoyed it, but sometimes Wilkinson would be a little...repetitive. And sometimes he would say things that made me a little cross, but I'm glad I read it. It broadened my horizons.
July 7, 2022
Is our society still divided by class, is who you are born to still important or are we divided into haves and have-nots, especially in health and social care? This is the main thrust of Richard Wilkinson’s book.
Wilkinson has collected together an impressive library of research into health inequalities, but this book is more than a catalogue of other people’s work. Coming from a social epidemiology background, Wilkinson analyses this research and puts it into a social context.
This book doesn’t just look at inequalities in diseases and illness, it analyses the socioeconomic effects of these inequalities and how they impinge on many areas of human life. Wilkinson, in different chapters, illustrates the wide-ranging effects of these inequalities, the psychological and social effects and not only the effects on physical health.
This doesn’t make for a comfortable read, but it is a book that can inform any field of healthcare. In 1980, the Black Report was published and exposed the shocking inequalities in British health. This book can be seen as one of the follow-ons from that. Unfortunately, as Wilkinson illustrates here, there has been very little change since then.
Wilkinson’s tone is rather dry and academic, but don’t let that put you off because this book is a valuable insight into health inequalities. Here is an examination of the socioeconomic factors of ill health, going beyond a medical model. Also, it is worth its price alone for the library of research study references within its covers.
Wilkinson has collected together an impressive library of research into health inequalities, but this book is more than a catalogue of other people’s work. Coming from a social epidemiology background, Wilkinson analyses this research and puts it into a social context.
This book doesn’t just look at inequalities in diseases and illness, it analyses the socioeconomic effects of these inequalities and how they impinge on many areas of human life. Wilkinson, in different chapters, illustrates the wide-ranging effects of these inequalities, the psychological and social effects and not only the effects on physical health.
This doesn’t make for a comfortable read, but it is a book that can inform any field of healthcare. In 1980, the Black Report was published and exposed the shocking inequalities in British health. This book can be seen as one of the follow-ons from that. Unfortunately, as Wilkinson illustrates here, there has been very little change since then.
Wilkinson’s tone is rather dry and academic, but don’t let that put you off because this book is a valuable insight into health inequalities. Here is an examination of the socioeconomic factors of ill health, going beyond a medical model. Also, it is worth its price alone for the library of research study references within its covers.
July 17, 2015
Solid, thought-provoking read. Came in handy as a reference for class.
January 19, 2015
Repetitive but interesting. This book was well written and lead to interesting thought processes.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews