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. 2021;50(6):891-934.
doi: 10.1007/s11186-021-09448-y. Epub 2021 May 15.

Toward a sociology of finitude: life, death, and the question of limits

Roi Livne  1
Affiliations

Toward a sociology of finitude: life, death, and the question of limits

Roi Livne. Theory Soc. 2021.

Abstract

Progressing beyond the given has been a key modern tendency. Yet modern societies are currently facing the problem of how to put limits on progress, expansion, and growth, live within them, and preserve (rather than transcend) the present. Drawing on economic sociology scholarship on valuation and morality in economic life, this article develops and applies the term economization to analyze the enactment of limits on progress. The question of end-of-life care-when to stop medical efforts to prolong life, postpone death, and advance the scientific frontier-serves as an illustrative empirical case that sheds light on limit-setting in general. My analysis of this case combines historical, ethnographic, and in-depth interview data on US palliative care clinicians, who specialize in making life-and-death decisions in acute care hospitals.

Keywords: Economization; Economy; Expertise; Morality; Subjectivity; Valuation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe author is unaware of any conflict of interest related to this research.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The Demographic Transition (Livne, 2019)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
World GDP per capita (adapted from De Long, 1998)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of Medicare Certified Hospices and Medicare Patients Dying in Hospice (Livne, 2014)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Number of articles mentioning “end of life” in top U.S. medical journals. The number of total citable items (both articles and reviews) in the New England Journal of Medicine remained fairly stable in 1997–2014 (an average of 354 items a year) and declined in the Journal of the American Medical Association by 40% (comparing the averages of 1997–2004 and 2005–2014). This makes the relatively stable number of articles that mention end-of-life care even more indicative of the field’s prominence (data are from Journal Citation Reports)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Growth in the proportion of books on death and dying (Livne, 2019)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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