Heat Wave: a Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Eric Klinenberg, assistant professor of sociology at New York University (formally of Northwestern University), wrote "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago" in order to further investigate the devastating Chicago heat wave of 1995. From July 13h to July 20th, the heat led to over 700 deaths and thousands being hospitalized due to heat related illness. Following the catastrophe, there have been numerous medical, meteorological, and epidemiological studies done examining the reasons for the historic mortality rate, but none seemed to focus on the on underlying issues such as social etiology. In "Heat Wave", Klinenberg, a Chicago native, takes his fascination with the social possibilities surrounding the event to greater depths. Above all, Klinenberg focuses on two major concerns; first, what are the social conditions that made it possible for hundreds of Chicago residents-most of them old, alone, and impoverished- to die during the one week heat spell? (Klinenberg, pg 18) And second, to "analyze the symbolic construction of the heat wave as a public event and experience….to impose as universally applicable a common set of standards and categories, such as natural disaster, that become legitimate frames for making sense of an unexpected situation." (Klinenberg, pg 23) Chapter 1, "Dying Alone," examines the aging population of urban residents who live alone, often without proximate or reliable sources of routine contact and social support. During 16 months of fieldwork, Klinenberg spent ample time conversing with over forty seniors, which helped him to better understand and convey ideas on how living alone had affected heat wave deaths. Because so many elderly had died alone in their houses, only to be found due to the stench of their decaying bodies as Klinenberg had vividly described, this research was imperative. Through these interviews, he was able to describe in detail the lives of many of the elderly who had survived the heat as well as the

Bibliography: 1) Clarke, Lee. "Using Disaster to See Society." Contemporary Sociology. March 2004. Vol. 33 Issue 2, p137, 3p. 2) Klinenberg, Eric. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002.