Virus interruptus: An Arendtian exploration of political world‐building in pandemic times

Abstract

Building upon a series of blog posts and conversations, two feminist scholars explore how political community, trust, responsibility, and solidarity are affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic. We explore the ways in which we can engage in political world‐building during pandemic times through the work of Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt’s notion of the world as the space for human togetherness, we ask: how can we respond to COVID‐19’s interruptions to the familiarity of daily life and our relationship to public space? By extending relational accounts of public health and organizational ethics, we critique a narrow view of solidarity that focuses on individual compliance with public health directives. Instead, we argue that solidarity involves addressing structural inequities, both within public health and our wider community. Finally, we suggest possibilities for political world‐building by considering how new forms of human togetherness might emerge as we forge a collective “new normal.”

Unleading during a pandemic: Scrutinising leadership and its impact in a state of exception

“…There is no denying that this rhetorical style partly captured the cognitive and emotional aspects of the unexpected transformation the population experienced. ‘Food service, grocery and warehouse workers might not have thought about their jobs as dangerous prior to their occupations becoming deemed essential work’ ( Gardiner and Fulfer, 2020 : 3). However, these rhetorical tactics fell short in leading through a pandemic shown to be more dispersed and multifaceted than war, and without the characteristics of a single and permanent enemy to defeat ( Grint, 2020 ).…”

Communicating COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Implicit to this divide between 'us' and 'them' is social inequality which is why Sobande (2020: 2) finds the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic as a 'force that is bringing people together' hypocritical. Gardiner and Fulfer (2020) similarly argue that the solidarity that has been communicated throughout the 2020 pandemic is a narrow, limited kind of solidarity because it is based on fear for our individual health and safety while on the other hand it neglects or even amplifies social inequities. They argue that 'a positive view of solidarity in pandemic times must move beyond compliance with government or public health directives' towards a more inclusive political community (2020: 8).…”

From the nice work to the hard work: “Troubling” community‐based CareMongering during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Community care is increasingly being organized in virtual spaces and we build on existing feminist scholarship which highlights the often invisible, digital, affective, embodied, immaterial, and material experiences of those organizing such digital communities of care (e.g., Bakardjieva et al., 2018; Clark‐Parsons, 2018; Fletcher, 2019; Nuru & Arendt, 2019). By “troubling” CareMongering, we contribute to the existing work of feminist scholars who have raised questions about organizing solidarity movements (e.g., Baxter, 2021; Jones et al., 2021; Kouki & Chatzidakis, 2021; Wickström et al., 2021) and challenged how care during the pandemic has been valued in the private spaces of the home, communities, social policies, and local and global organizing (e.g., Cozza et al., 2021; Gardiner & Fulfer, 2021; Miller, 2021; Vohra & Taneja, 2021). We also explore how this (under)valuing of care contributes to individual and collective vulnerability (Cozza et al., 2021).…”

“…For example, in racialized communities throughout Canada such inequalities have led to disproportionate rates of COVID‐19 infection and mortality (Statistics Canada, 2020). Additionally, during the first wave of the pandemic, long‐term care homes – funded by a mix of public and private providers – accounted for nearly 80% of all COVID‐19 related mortality in the country (Gardiner & Fulfer, 2021; Webster, 2021). Reflecting on these statistics, Gardiner and Fulfer (2021) suggest that understanding and addressing such disparities requires an acknowledgment of the structural injustices involved in organizing care and working for systemic change (Gardiner & Fulfer, 2021).…”