Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: This symposium was rapidly assembled to mark the present moment, in which a novel coronavirus has unleashed a global pandemic.This moment is itself marked by rapid change, and this collection records knowledge and experiences that may soon be eclipsed by newer emergent urgencies.We invited this group of contributors from Australia, Colombia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Philippines and the United States to provide a reflection on the pandemic from their position, on any aspect that would be important for thinking through the intersections of crime, media and culture.The resulting collection, produced in little more than a month, powerfully achieves more than we could have hoped, mapping COVID-19 as a global phenomenon, but one which is read and experienced quite differently across contexts.The symposium was conceived in May 2020, contributions were completed during June, and we wrote this introduction in late July.Over just these three months, the world has changed again, and again.We cannot yet make sense of the situation we are in.For now, our aim has been to capture a diverse set of perspectives at a moment which almost certainly is only the beginning.Some contributors ask us to bear witness to atrocity taking place while attention is deflected onto COVID-19, while others give us a glimpse of potentially transformative, even hopeful, responses.Some remind us of previous times and pandemics, others dwell in the present noticing as the strange becomes familiar and mundane.The Black Death has so far been the deadliest pandemic in human history.Its impact on human existence entailed profound changes, not least in the organisation and legal regulation of population.Vagrancy laws, and the formation of police powers to enforce them, date to this catastrophe.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
OpenAlex ID: W3081289568