ABSTRACT
The key for future social research will be systematically documenting emerging structures of inequality and understanding the end of life as stratified and evolving rather than linear. This will require large-scale studies mapping the relationships between dying and biographies/demographics, as well as small-scale in-depth qualitative studies exploring the meaning and experience of dying in different contexts. However, as social and cultural changes occur, the dynamics of dying, as well as the structural, social, political, professional and economic influences on care and illness also change. Societies are highly differentiated in the extent to which economic development shapes the retention of beliefs and values and also in the use of traditional health practices, suggesting that approaches to dying will vary across time, space and culture. Another area of considerable priority for research into dying and end-of-life care is the dynamics of biographies in shaping experiences of dying.
