Lonely Deaths in an Increasingly Contactless Society

More of us are falling out of contact with family and friends. It affects how we are cared for — in life and in death. If we die alone, what do we expect to happen to our bodies? Cities across the globe are challenged by the phenomenon of residents dying unnoticed and dead remaining unclaimed by next of kin. In this public event, international researchers and local organizers will speak about unclaimed deaths in New York, Tokyo, Japan, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. With: Sally Raudon, Mika Toyota and Joris van Casteren.

Several factors contribute to this problem of lonely deaths: shifting family structures, the rise of social disconnection, the reduction of welfare programs, and increasing inequality.
This phenomenon raises concerns beyond public health risks. It brings into focus issues of loneliness, isolation, and societal inequality, highlighting the fragmentation of modern urban life. Yet, it can also inspire acts of care and responsibility from various professionals. These responses reveal the potential for social resilience in urban environments, where different individuals and groups step in to address the issue of unclaimed deaths. During this event, experts will explore this topic in various global contexts. Pamela Prickett, sociologist and author of The Unclaimed, will moderate this fascinating and timely discussion.

About the speakers

Sally Raudon is an Isaac Newton Trust Fellow and social anthropologist at University of Cambridge. Raudon researches what people do with their dead. She will discuss her research on Hart Island, New York City’s massed grave for its unknown, unclaimed, and poor. Approximately a million people have been buried on Hart Island since 1869 in unmarked trenches, mostly by prisoners. It still operates today. How can we understand a massed grave as part of civil society? What lies underneath a passed grave?

Mika Toyota is a Research Scientist at the Centre for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany. She was previously a Professor at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan (2012-2020) and worked at the National University of Singapore (2002-2012) and University of Hull, UK (2000-2002). She has published widely on issues related to aging and care in transnational contexts. Her current research explores the emerging new service industry around unclaimed death in Japan and beyond.

Joris van Casteren is a renowned Dutch literary journalist, known for his dry, factual style and original perspective. His breakthrough came with Lelystad (2008), a coming-of-age story. Other works include Het been in de IJssel (2013), Mensen op Mars (2016), and Moeders Lichaam (2019). Since 2018, he has coordinated “De Eenzame Uitvaart,” honoring Amsterdam’s unclaimed dead by researching their lives and commissioning poets to write and recite poems at their funerals, sharing these stories in a national newspaper.

Pamela Prickett (moderator) is sociologist and the author of The Unclaimed (Penguin Random House, 2024).