Mortality is a social phenomenon, a measure and reflection of the deaths, and survival, of millions of people. Over the past 200 years or so, mortality has dramatically declined, probably for the first time in human history. The historical experience has been varied, with, in some cases, 50 percent of those born dying before their 20th birthday or even before. By contrast, the majority of babies born in Australia, and other developed countries, today will live to 85 years, and possibly beyond. This dramatic decline in mortality is, on the one hand, the outcome of three important social processes: the increase in nutrition and standards of living in general; the amelioration of public health conditions; and the development of medical knowledge and technology. Each of these has played its part, at different times, in different parts of the world. At the same time, the decline in mortality has been a necessary condition for these developments. The overall result has been a dramatic shift in the ages at which people are dying and in the causes of death.

Nonetheless, this decline has not been even, and important differences remain, between men and women; between countries and between different sections of the population within countries. The focus of this lecture will be on the underlying causes of these differences. These are, we suggest, the differential access to the wealth that is produced in society; different patterns of social organisation, at both the local (familial, community) as well as the national level, and in patterns of behaviour which grow out of these conditions. Even at very low levels, such as our ancestors could not even imagine, mortality remains a social phenomenon, a vivid reminder not only of how our life has improved over the past generations, but also of how far we have yet to go.

Professor Jon Anson is from the Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel and is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Demography.

He studied at Leeds University (BA, Sociology); Hebrew University (MSW); and Brown University (PhD Sociology / Demography). Professor Anson has been teaching at Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University since 1985. The major focus of his research is on mortality as a social process, with occasional forays into analysis of fertility and migration. He is the editor of Bitachon Sotziali (Social Security), an Israeli Journal of Social Policy; Convener of the EAPS Working Group on Health, Morbidity and Mortality, since 2004; and President ISA RC41 (Sociology of Population) since 2015. Currently, he is on pre-retirement sabbatical leave.

Lecture slides