Covid-19: When Species and Data Meet

Abstract

This article explores how species meet, in particular humans and the Covid-19 virus. It also draws attention to the digital world through the lens of contact-tracing apps. Here, I examine human-virus-data relations, with humans, Covid-19, and data meeting and intra-acting. This article examines what has led us to this situation with Covid-19 and the role data is currently playing. The article offers an answer to two questions. How do humans, Covid-19, and Covid-19 contact-tracing apps meet and intra-act? What are the social justice issues and problems associated with contact-tracing apps? This article examines how species meet and intra-act, as well as how the Anthropocene has contributed to the current situation. The article also discusses contact-tracing apps and what these apps mean for society. Finally, the article shows how entanglements are not only constrained to those which are multispecies but also stretch out to the digital. These postdigital hybrid assemblages enable the coming together of humans, biological-more-than-human-worlds, and the digital. Postdigital hybrid assemblages enable us to push beyond boundaries, helping us understand Covid-19 and its impacts on society. Hopefully, this discussion about the postdigital hybrid assemblage will contribute to discussions in the future, and long after Covid-19, about how we are living our lives, and who and what we are living our lives with.

How is “solidarity” understood in discussions about contact tracing apps? An overview

“…If solidarity is understood as a factual form of social cohesion of a society, it can either refer to a specific, individual nation such as Singapore (66), Ireland (67), France (68), Germany (69,70), South Korea (68), the UK (71, 72), and China (70) or even the European Union (73), or to an unspecified, individual nation (74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79). It can furthermore be an indeterminate collective of unknown size (36,(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87), a particular marginalized group of persons within an indeterminate collective (38,(88)(89)(90)(91), or an indeterminate human-technology-society called "post-digital hybrid assemblage" (92).…”

“…If solidarity as a form of social cohesion follows CTA in time, this may have two different results. On the one hand, the public acceptance and individual use of CTA may strengthen the factual forms of social cohesion that exist in a collective (67) or strengthen factors that are elementary for them (72,82), it may prevent negative consequences for forms of social cohesion that would have happened if CTA were not accepted and used (66), or open up possibilities for reimagining old and establishing new relationships (92). On the other hand, the acceptance and use of CTA may also have a negative impact on a society's forms of social cohesion: by threatening or undermining the forms of social cohesion that exist in a collective (83), by weakening factors that are elementary for them (75,77,(80)(81)(82)86), by reinforcing existing discriminations and worsening the situation for specific groups of people (38,75,90,91), or by using resources for the development and implementation of CTA that would have had more positive effects on the community if used in an alternative way (88,89).…”

Networked Learning in 2021: A Community Definition

“…The provocation to rethink NL for a post-pandemic world lists social justice as an area for further incorporation into the diverse and well-established field. The pandemic itself has brought the concept of the network to the fore as a network entanglement which is biological, social, cultural, digital, and networked (Honigsbaum 2020;Matthews 2020a;Price 2020). Pre-pandemic social injustices (i.e.…”

Review of Michael A. Peters and Tina Besley (Eds.). (2021). Pandemic Education and Viral Politics

“…Inequalities arising from digital technologies are also revealed. A lack of access to a smartphone illustrates how the digital divide prevents people from accessing technologies such as contact tracing apps (Price 2020). Healthcare workers and humanitarian groups have risked their own lives to save others, whilst some individuals and groups have looked to profit or take advantage during the pandemic.…”