The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-being - Couverture souple

Wilkinson, Richard; Pickett, Kate

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0141975393 ISBN 13 : 9780141975399

Editeur : Penguin, 2019

Synopsis

The essential new book from the authors of the international bestseller The Spirit Level

'Why are people, particularly young people, experiencing increasing levels of mental illness and distress? Highly readable and authoritative, The Inner Level shows clearly how social anxieties and the problems they lead to rise steadily in richer, more unequal societies' Clare Short, The Tablet, Books of the Year

Why is the incidence of mental illness in the UK twice that in Germany? Why are Americans three times more likely than the Dutch to develop gambling problems? Why is child well-being so much worse in New Zealand than Japan? As this groundbreaking study demonstrates, the answer to all these hinges on inequality.

In The Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett put inequality at the centre of public debate
by showing conclusively that less-equal societies fare worse than more equal ones across everything
from education to life expectancy. The Inner Level now explains how inequality affects us individually,
how it alters how we think, feel and behave. It sets out the overwhelming evidence that material
inequalities have powerful psychological effects: when the gap between rich and poor increases, so does the tendency to defi ne and value ourselves and others in terms of superiority and inferiority. A deep well of data and analysis is drawn upon to empirically show, for example, that low social status is associated with elevated levels of stress, and how rates of anxiety and depression are intimately related to the inequality which makes that status paramount.

Wilkinson and Pickett describe how these responses to hierarchies evolved, and why the impacts of
inequality on us are so severe. In doing so, they challenge the conception that humans are innately
competitive and self-interested. They undermine, too, the idea that inequality is the product of 'natural' differences in individual ability. This book sheds new light on many of the most urgent problems facing societies today, but it is not just an index of our ills. It demonstrates that societies based on fundamental equalities, sharing and reciprocity generate much higher levels of well-being, and lays out the path towards them.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Richard Wilkinson (Author)

Richard Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research and his work has been published in ten languages. He studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London.

Kate Pickett (Author)

Kate Pickett is Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science and Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change at
University of York.

Her landmark book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, co-written with Richard Wilkinson, was an international bestseller, chosen by the Guardian as one of the 100 most influential books of the century and by the New Statesman as a top ten book of the decade. Their follow-up, The Inner Level, shows how societal inequality has similarly profound effects on individual health and wellbeing.

Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Nature and New York Times, and she has delivered more than 500 keynote speeches, including at the United Nations, the European Parliament and within UK government departments.

Kate is the co-founder of the Equality Trust, academic director of Health Equity North, and a fellow of the RSA, the UK Faculty of Public Health and the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2023, she received an OBE for services to societal equality.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0141975393
• ISBN 13: 9780141975399
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 352
• Coordonnées du fabricant: The Random House Group Limited; productsafety@penguin.co.uk; ; One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens; London; SW11 7BW; Royaume-Uni
• Personne responsable: The Random House Group Limited; productsafety@penguin.co.uk; ; One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens; London; SW11 7BW; Royaume-Uni