Covid-19 and the Social Sciences

These pieces call attention to how social research can shed light on the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic and what can be done to improve responses, both now and in the future.
April 25, 2020
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Starting with SSRC president Alondra Nelson’s reflections on “Society after Pandemic,” this series of essays explores the human, social, political, and ethical dimensions of Covid-19. These pieces call attention to how social research can shed light on the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic and what can be done to improve responses, both now and in the future.

The publication of this series would not be possible if not for the help of the following SSRC staff:

Juni Ahari, communications and editorial assistant.
Cole Edick, program associate, Anxieties of Democracy and Media & Democracy programs.
Carrie Hamilton, program assistant, Social Data Initiative and Media & Democracy program.
Saarah Jappie, program officer, Transregional Collaboratory on the Indian Ocean.
Michelle Lee, program assistant, International Dissertation Research Fellowship.
Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing, communications and editorial assistant, African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa.
Daniella Sarnoff, program director, International Dissertation Research Fellowship.
Catherine Weddig, program assistant, Social Data Initiative and Media & Democracy program.

Themes

Covid-19 Fieldnotes from our Grantees

Recipients of the SSRC’s Rapid-Response Grants on Covid-19 and the Social Sciences share their insights from the field.

Covid-19 in East Asia

In these essays, scholars examine how East Asian countries responded to the Covid-19 crisis, analyzing the pandemic’s impact from international relationships to domestic affairs.

Mediated Crisis

Perhaps at a scale unseen before, the Covid-19 pandemic is experienced, managed, and coped with through a range of mediated experiences, positive and negative. This essay series examines the Covid-19 pandemic as part of a transition toward fully mediated moments of crisis.

Policy Models in Pandemic

These essays examine the use of policy modeling in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how these methodologies may impact future decision making by both the public, experts, and policymakers.

Disaster Studies

This series of essays, drawing on insights from research on disasters and public health crises, will highlight how social research can shed light on the mutual effects of social inequality and events such as the Covid-19 pandemic over time.

Democracy and Pandemics

How is Covid-19 impacting democratic governance? What does the current crisis tell us about democratic strengths and weaknesses under states of emergency?

Social Research and Insecurity

How has the pandemic changed research practice? What security and ethical concerns might be generated by remote research and transregional collaborations in insecure contexts?

Covid-19 in Africa

This series brings together the research and reflections of fellows of SSRC’s Africa programs, scholars, practitioners, and activists on the nature, impacts and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, including its local-global connections.

Society after Pandemic

Scholars reflect on the wide-ranging effects of the pandemic in all corners of society, and consider what might come after.

Pandemic, religion, and public life

This series draws together scholars across the social sciences and the humanities to address various questions raised or renewed by Covid-19, and its effects on religious and public life globally.

A Time Capsule for Future Social Researchers

Inspired by the Council’s Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize for Visual Sociology, we ask prominent scholars to select a visual artifact of this time that will help future researchers understand the Covid-19 crisis.

Essays

Sub-Saharan Africa Will Most Likely Ride Out the Covid-19 Storm

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Amid the ongoing Covid-19 carnage, there are fears that Africa will be blown apart by the virus. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a chilling warning to African countries: “The best advice for Africa is to prepare for the worst.” It was not an idle warning. Africa has been the stage for pandemics before. Besides, as two French doctors unconsciously expressed on television, sub-Saharan Africa is occasionally where ethical boundaries are pushed when developing vaccines. Meanwhile, many global media outlets are foretelling another African disaster.

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May 14, 2020

Dealing with a Global Pandemic in an Interconnected World

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Covid-19 has not only overstretched the existing boundaries of scientific inquiry, it has made us realize that all knowledge is incomplete. As Francis Nyamnjoh aptly notes, “incompleteness is the normal order of things, and that conviviality invites us to celebrate and preserve incompleteness and mitigate the delusions of grandeur that come with ambitions and claims of [knowledge] completeness.”

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May 7, 2020

Covid-19: Social Distancing and Lockdown in Black Townships in South Africa

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Covid-19 has affected all forms of social and economic activity in and around the world. In response to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, governments have been forced to implement the global standard measures to curb the contagion. These measures include social distancing, quarantine, partial or total lockdown, and other restrictive measures. However, differences in context are often ignored in applying these measures, when there ought to be some modification of certain measures in some places.

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May 7, 2020

Rubberstamps in Robes: How Courts Legitimate Government Action during Crises

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Writing for the “Covid-19 and the Social Sciences” series, Jonathan S. Hack and Cole Edick examine the deference of the judiciary toward other branches of government during crises, such as the ongoing pandemic. How deferential will courts be toward broad government action by executives and legislatures that restrict rights and liberties in the name of ensuring public health and safety? Pointing to historical precedent and recent coronavirus-related cases brought before the judiciary in the United States, they argue that courts are likely to act as legitimating agents that promote and expand state police power in times of crisis.

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May 7, 2020

Can Democracies Handle Systemic Risks?

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In this essay for our “Covid-19 and the Social Sciences” series, Miguel Centeno reviews T.H. Marshall’s trilogy of civil, political, and social rights, raising questions about how such rights might be affected during major systemic crises. Can democracies successfully manage systemic challenges under global crisis conditions, with attention to each set of rights? Are some rights easier to defend than others during crises? And, when is the collective good allowed to supersede individual freedoms? He calls for democratic theory to answer these questions, arguing that systemic crises represent a similar challenge to democracy as natural disaster or war.

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May 7, 2020
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