Hope and despair at the time of pandemic

Abstract

At the time when lives and livelihoods are lost, streets are eerily empty, shops are shuttered, schools are closed, cities are locked down, people are isolated from their loved ones, and the spread of Coronavirus is spiralling the world into multiple inter-connected crises, many people are searching for hope in the midst of despair. What is hope, where can we find it, and is hope a social force for change? In this Viewpoint we aim to address these questions and present an account of despair whose roots, we argue, go deeper than the current pandemic and its tragic consequences.

Overseas Filipino workers and the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring the emotional labor of persistence

“…6). Likewise, writing about the situation in the United Kingdom (UK), Davoudi and Ormerod (2021) begin by locating the discourse of our despair and survival amidst these trying times in the World Health Organization (WHO) slogan, “we're in this together.” They point out that this slogan is problematic because it suggest[s] that the virus does not discriminate and can affect porters and cleaners as well as princes and prime ministers. However, this narrative overlooks the profoundly unequal health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic.…”

“…However, this narrative overlooks the profoundly unequal health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic. ( Davoudi and Ormerod, 2021 , p. 1 , p. 1)…”