Logo image
Pathogenic Politics: Authoritarianism, Inequality, and Capitalism in the COVID-19 Crisis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Pathogenic Politics: Authoritarianism, Inequality, and Capitalism in the COVID-19 Crisis

Theodore Powers and Jeremy Rayner
Open Anthropological Research, Vol.1(1), pp.159-166
09/04/2021
DOI: 10.1515/opan-2020-0113
url
https://doi.org/10.1515/opan-2020-0113View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

We provide an introduction to this special issue on the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting some of the key findings and central arguments of the articles collected herein, and discussing their significance in relation to the broader political context of the pandemic. We address the roles of necropolitics and “necrosecurity”, pointing to their relationships to colonial and eugenicist histories, as well as some of the ways in which a globally-ascendant authoritarian populism contributed to the often-disastrous mismanagement of the pandemic. We consider how unequal structures of social and public obligation were reproduced to the detriment of lives and livelihoods, and the challenges facing institutions of protection, care, and social reproduction. Finally, we consider some of the ways in which the pandemic may have opened up avenues for more systemic transformations—for good or for ill.
Covid-19 medical anthropology politics of pandemics public health social inequality

Details

Metrics

61 Record Views
Logo image