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- Convenors:
-
Michael Rabi
(The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Eva Hilberg (University of Sheffield)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Main Site Tower (MST), 01/004
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel seeks to explore to what extent and how health crises/emergencies drive transformations in governance on different scales and in different fields, especially beyond (but not excluding) global health governance.
Long Abstract:
Pandemics and epidemics, much like other moments of 'crisis' or 'emergency', are a time of profound transformation. While for many people such moments become part of an enduring state of "stasis and stuckness" (Knight 2019), they can also become access points into historical truth through scrutiny of "what went wrong?" (Roitman 2014). As the Coronavirus pandemic keeps unfolding in unexpected ways, it repeatedly prompts changes to our ways of life, highlighting that pervasive transformative effects of health crises are not confined to the realm of public health alone, but play out across various spheres.
How do efforts to prepare and respond to, and recover from health emergencies effect changes in governmental practice and technology, policy, and power dynamics? Has global health governance indeed entered a state of unresolved crisis, in which persistent uncertainty means that "the old is dying and the new cannot be born" (Gramsci 1971)? Is this emergency then confined to global health governance, or can it be seen as part of a wider hegemonic crisis of "progressive neoliberalism" (Fraser 2019)? Finally, can the current pandemic emergency best be understood as a moment of indecision or decision, of shifting alliances or of emerging hegemonic consensus?
This panel invites diverse perspectives on the relationship between transformations in governance and health crises/emergencies as it seeks to explore to what extent and in what ways health crises/emergencies drive transformations in governance on different scales and in different fields, especially beyond (but not excluding) global health governance.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 July, 2022, -Michael Rabi (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I examine processes or fundamental elements that enable the constitution of a particular governmental problem in the context of global health, the problem of Antimicrobial Resistance in this case, as an emergency.
Paper long abstract:
My purpose in this chapter is not to examine or to make an epistemological claim regarding whether AMR should or should not be defined as a health emergency. Instead, it is to understand the dynamics that underlie the uncertain and indeterminate ontological status of AMR in this regard – at once an emergency, a “slow” emergency, and a non-emergency. By that, I do not mean that my focus is on different perceptions or ontologies of emergency per se, but instead on how the problem of AMR has been, at least to an extent, “emergencized”. In other words, I examine processes or fundamental elements that constitute a particular governmental problem in the context of global health, AMR in this case, as an emergency.
Based on my analysis, I identify three interlinked dimensions, processes, or key factors that enable the constitution of a problem as an emergency. First, a realization of the problem as, or a process whereby the problem becomes a general event that is situated, in historical terms, as a fracture (“crisis”). Second, an array of developments or a process in which loosely connected and scattered governmental interventions are gradually replaced by emerging and more stable networks that routinely and systematically manage the problem through governmental apparatuses. Third, a process through which the general event is compressed, and a constant maintenance of this compression. The general event is made concrete, immediate, and urgent through a combination of discourses and technologies that create a compression or cringe effect.
Dimitra Koumparou (Hellenic Open University)
Paper short abstract:
Public space, food, housing, and care are converted from commodities to commons and a self-organized community offers relief, after a natural hazard. Commoning in a rural area of Greece transforms help into a commons, after a crisis, in collaboration or noncooperation with the state system.
Paper long abstract:
This work tries to identify how people transform their organizational patterns in an effort to come to terms with events of catastrophe, like an earthquake. This procedure involves alterations in social attitudes and values. It is discussed how a self-organized community acts before and after a catastrophic natural phenomenon, in a rural area. This work examines how this community reconstructs and reorganizes the relationships and the subjects in a rural landscape, during a crisis. The footprint of the community’s action, after the disaster, is studied. The adaptive strategies used to confront the consequences of the natural hazard, the transformation of mechanisms that occur within the local, social and political system, because of the upheaval of forced relocation, and the informal and formal forms of care are discussed. Community resilience and adaptability, in times of crisis, are examined with reference to the community’s help praxis and strategies that have been exercised to enable people to continue their life under emergency conditions. Material subsistence and exchange, sharing, egalitarianism, trust, altruism, and reciprocity are treated, and help emerges as a commons.
Eva Jörgensen (University of Iceland)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation will report of themes of idioms of distress and commoning from interviews conducted with Icelandic adolescents aged 13-17 about their experiences and status within government public health interventions.
Paper long abstract:
Adolescence is an important period of personal growth, with the establishing of ones sense of self where peer-relationships become increasingly important, this group has needed to come up with imaginative ways to cope and connect with friends. It is already evident that the government public health interventions following the COVID-19 pandemic, such as social distancing, closure of public institutions, and disruption of daily routines, has had a multifaceted impact on all levels of societies worldwide. As a result, adolescents have had to adjust to a new sense of reality whilst negotiating important elements such as peer-relationships, their own individuality, and personhood. This is shown in finding ways to seek support from friends, creating new relationships through common interests online, and redefining what is important to them. Icelandic adolescents are no exception. This presentation is a part of a larger PhD project in medical anthropology which aims to give insight into the experiences of adolescents in Iceland by using mixed methods; participatory research, interviews, and analysis of survey data. The presentation will report on themes, including narratives of coping, and redefining the social with online media, from interviews conducted between September 2021 and June 2022 with adolescents aged 13-17 from the capital area of Iceland. Insights will be brought into their experiences during unprecedented times, and analysis drawn from theories of idioms of distress, and commoning, to build a picture showing how they have gradually co-produced a new ‘normal’ way of being.