IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

114 Chapter 6
industry populated by a complex ecology of powerful interest groups:
insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, for-profit hospitals,
and high-tech medical suppliers. Less powerful, but increasingly wellinformed
and organized, are the patients and their caregivers it’s all
supposed to be for.
Health and care industries are growing because people don’t look after
each other as much as they used to. We expect governments to provide
support services instead. Governments don’t like this. The provision of
care costs a lot of money—and besides, the customer is never satisfied.
Hence the growing interest among policymakers in ideas of social capital
and conviviality. The case for conviviality is that if we were to take more
responsibility for our own well-being, we might rely less on care as a service
delivered to us by third parties—especially the state. Such a shift in
emphasis—from delivered care to supported care—would enable governments
to focus on the supporting infrastructures, collaboration tools, and
social software for better connected communities by enhancing dialogue,
encounter, and community in our everyday lives.
Weak social ties are bad for our health in a variety of ways. Recent studies
have shown that psychosocial factors, such as lack of social support and depression,
are important predictors of morbidity and mortality in patients
with cardiovascular disease (CVD)—since 1900, the number-one killer in
developed countries. 4 Extensive social networks appear to offer protection
from the condition. The mortality rate for men with CVD is inversely related
to the level of social connectedness. 5 ‘‘To the extent that psychosocial
intervention can be shown to impact favourably on survival and recovery,’’
argued one report, ‘‘the human and financial burden associated with heart
disease can be reduced.’’ 6 As far back as the nineteenth century, the sociologist
Emil Durkheim had found a close link between incidence of suicide
and the degree to which individuals are integrated in society. 7
Health psychologists today have amassed considerable supporting evidence
that a sense of social support is a buffer against stress and illness.
Studies conducted in a number of countries have found that ‘‘a strong support
system lowers the likelihood of many illnesses, decreases the length of
recoveries, and reduces the probability of mortality from serious diseases.
People with higher levels of support recover faster from kidney disease,
childhood leukemia, and strokes, have better diabetes control, experience
less pain from arthritis, and live longer.’’ 8