Deindustrialization and deaths of despair: mapping the impact of industrial decline on ill health

A growingliteratureon deaths of despairhas argued that workers’declining life expectancy in deindustrialized rustbelt areasin the U.S.and the associateddeepening of health inequalities signal the profound existential crisis of contemporary capitalism. Competingexplanationsdownplay the negative consequences of “creative destruction” andfocus instead on unhealthy lifestyles. Thisarticle contributesto this debate by presenting the first empirical analysis of the role of deindustrialization in the deaths of despair epidemic that hit Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Drawing on the thematic analysis of 82 semi-structuredinterviews in four deindustrializedtowns in Hungary, the article constructs ageneral sociological frameworkfor analyzing deaths of despairapplicable toother rustbelt areas. Deindustrialization engendersindividualand social processes that affect health by increasingstress and erodingcoping resources. By conceptualizing deindustrialization as a fundamental cause of ill health, sociology has great potential to contribute to understandingthe root causes of deaths of despair