# **<mark>Short case studies (vignettes)</mark>**

## _4)_ _<u>Inequality during the 1995 Chicago and 2003 European heat waves</u>_

Klinenberg’s (1999) social autopsy of the 1995 Chicago heat wave during which >500 people died directly from the heat and another >700 of premature death (deaths in excess of the weekly average) is a tragic and most detailed reminder of the role of racial inequality during extreme events. The European heat wave during the summer of 2003 affected a total of 16 countries and resulted in >70,000 additional deaths, including almost 15,000 deaths in France alone (Poumadère et al. 2005; Robine et al. 2008). Both exemplify how marginality and political neglect, centered around the intersecting axes of race, age, and gender, drive vulnerability to climatic extremes among societies’ poorest and most disadvantaged citizens in affluent nations. They also highlight the urban particularities that do not always go along with a more rural‐ focused asset and consumption framework. While the lack of air conditioning certainly exacerbates mounting temperatures in poor and small residential settings, the case studies highlight the more important role of failed social and urban policies that generated social isolation. Heat waves have also been referred to as “silent killers” that expose social inequalities in the face of risks (Klinenberg 2002). Chapter 12 Human Health of the AR5, WGII, confirms that people disadvantaged by race and ethnicity experience more harm from heat stress: for example, higher heat‐related mortality has been reported for Black Americans, likely due to low economic status, chronic conditions such as overweight and diabetes, disrupted social networks, higher local crime rates, and displacement after extreme events (Smith et al. 2014).

<!-- Start of picture text --> neglect, centered around the intersecting axes of race, age, and gender, drive vulnerability to<br>climatic extremes among societies’ poorest and most disadvantaged citizens in affluent nations.<br>They also highlight the urban particularities that do not always go along with a more rural‐<br>focused asset and consumption framework. While the lack of air conditioning certainly<br>exacerbates mounting temperatures in poor and small residential settings, the case studies<br>highlight the more important role of failed social and urban policies that generated social<br>isolation. Heat waves have also been referred to as “silent killers” that expose social inequalities<br><!-- End of picture text --> <!-- Start of picture text --> people disadvantaged by race and ethnicity experience more harm from heat stress: for<br>example, higher heat‐related mortality has been reported for Black Americans, likely due to low<br>economic status, chronic conditions such as overweight and diabetes, disrupted social networks,<br>higher local crime rates, and displacement after extreme events (Smith et al. 2014).<br>In his analysis of the political economy of vulnerability and social isolation in the city of Chicago,<br>Klinenberg (1999) outlines the confluence of new urban poverty, the decentralization,<br><!-- End of picture text --> In his analysis of the political economy of vulnerability and social isolation in the city of Chicago, Klinenberg (1999) outlines the confluence of new urban poverty, the decentralization, fragmentation, and privatization of social‐service programs and down‐sized public agencies due to the retrenchment of the welfare state, the deterioration of neighborhoods, the collapse of businesses, depopulation, and an associated rise in violence, and misguided public housing policies that precipitated what he calls the “anatomy of urban suffering” (250) and the “ring of death” (254) — the precariousness and heightened numbers of deaths among low‐income, elderly, African‐American citizens living in more violent neighborhoods predominantly in the south and southwestern parts of Chicago’s metropolis. According to his inquiry, Black seniors accounted for 45% of the deaths of citizens 65 years of age and older, with more men dying than women, arguably at least partially due to men’s weaker or non‐existent social networks.

<!-- Start of picture text --> to the retrenchment of the welfare state, the deterioration of neighborhoods, the collapse of<br>businesses, depopulation, and an associated rise in violence, and misguided public housing<br>policies that precipitated what he calls the “anatomy of urban suffering” (250) and the “ring of<br>death” (254) — the precariousness and heightened numbers of deaths among low‐income,<br>elderly, African‐American citizens living in more violent neighborhoods predominantly in the<br>south and southwestern parts of Chicago’s metropolis. According to his inquiry, Black seniors<br>accounted for 45% of the deaths of citizens 65 years of age and older, with more men dying<br><!-- End of picture text --> “Home alone, home afraid, home sick” describes how the outsourcing of service provisions obscured the rising level of insecurity and depth of deprivation among the poorest and most distressed individuals. The socially and spatially isolated, many of them poor elderly citizens, barricaded themselves in their small homes, refusing to leave their fortified single‐room occupancy dwellings that range just one level above homelessness. They did this despite the suffocating heat that reached 106 °F and unusually high night temperatures up into the lower 25