Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Covid-19 testing in Austrian schools became a political, moral, and administrative problem during the pandemic. Drawing on the concept of problematization it treats testing as as an object whose meaning, necessity, and legitimacy had to be continuously constructed.

Paper long abstract

The study is looking at how Covid-19 testing in schools was defined regarding what testing was used for, how it was organized and why it was needed. This shows how meaning and importance of Covid-19 testing changed over time and why.

It is based on two types of data. First a detailed timeline on Covid-19 testing in Austrian Schools, based on newspaper reports and official announcements and secondly interviews with important and highly responsible politicians from the educational sector. These two sources together show how different ideas about Covid-19 testing in school shaped decisions.

Three main kinds of problem definitions appear. Ontological problems show how actors describe what a Covid-19 test in different situations and at different times during the Covid-19 pandemic was. The moral dimension covers different responsibilities regarding testing and how these shifted. And on the administrative side the study shows how testing was carried out, which infrastructure had to be created for that and by whom.

Moreover, it shows that the idea of preparedness is behind the implementation of testing in schools, since tests have represented a safety measure that demonstrates how schools have prepared for the pandemic, enabling them to monitor risks and react quickly and effectively.

The study argues that crisis governance shapes, and is shaped by, public and political debate. It makes a valuable contribution to the Science and Technology Studies (STS) discussion on preparedness, demonstrating how problematisation can be employed to analyse such processes.

Keywords:

Problematisation

Preparedness

Covid-19 School Testing

STS

Crisis Governance