In the era of an invisible airborne disease, the practice of walking on the streets, once unthought, is not only thought but fraught as we negotiate public space with new ideas about self-and-other hygiene.
Pandemic Insights
We would like to thank everyone for their contributions to Pandemic Insights. We are no longer taking submissions for this particular column, but welcome pitches for essays on topical issues and in response to our calls for proposals.
Pandemic Insights essays are not reviewed or developmentally edited and solely reflect the views of the author.
The Future of Shareholder Activism
Traditionally, the norm for public companies in the United States is to hold in-person Annual General Meetings. Will the move to virtual meetings prompted by COVID-19 prove permanent in the United States and elsewhere?
On Banal Security
Banal security provides a unique lens to assess South Korea’s COVID-19 response beyond claims of citizen solidarity, South Korea and East Asia as a communal culture versus the individualization of the West, and even democratic decision-making.
A Question, an Answer, and the Language of Care
Communicating care has been swiftly ritualized in the pandemic, from rainbow paintings to birthday horn-honking caravans to nightly cheering of workers through city streets. These actions show dearness accruing at points of need and suggest that the language of care provides one kind of sustenance across a straining society.
Alone Together or Online Together?
What is this pandemic showing us about connecting as humans when the physical body isn’t a factor?
The Challenges of Recognizing Collective Affect Online
A reflection on social isolation and collective affect during a pandemic.
COVID-19 is a Game Changer for Graduate Schools and Anthropology
The COVID-19 virus is the new sheriff in town and nothing will ever be the same again. Change has just knocked at the door; is anthropology ready to answer?
The Urban Disease Revealed in Italy
COVID-19 brought to the fore the pathology of our metropoles. It is a pathology rooted in their economic structure, which draws from precariousness.
Ethnographic Disruption in the Time of COVID-19
At its best, anthropology strives to understand the complexities of human existence and the ethical and moral dilemmas and choices that face us. The discipline that is invested in documenting societal change will have to formulate ways to work through an event that is unprecedented in most of our lifetimes.
The Meaning of Lockdown in Bangladesh
Terms such as “lockdown,” “quarantine,” “social distancing,” and “isolation” became ubiquitous during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these were not familiar to the people of many non-Western countries like Bangladesh, and were often misunderstood or at least not understood accordingly.
