Socially distanced capitalism in a time of coronavirus

Abstract

In theory, all of us are vulnerable to coronavirus, but in practice how well we fare has to do with what you could call pre-existing conditions that are not only medical but economic, social, political and racialand the pandemic, which is also an economic catastrophe, has made these differences glaringly clear. (Solnit 2020) The pandemic may have come as a surprise for some, but it is perhaps far less a surprise to those who were already marked as surplus to the movements of power and capital and security, those already vulnerable people made doubly (trebly? more?) so in the pandemic: the disabled, the elderly, the poor, the immune-compromised, the homeless, the prisoner, the refugee, the asylum seeker, the colonized, and so on. (Ironstone 2020) Several correspondents of mine have suggested that it makes a nice and welcome change that something this big, this bad, this scary and this seemingly predictable is not coming out of Africa. 'This'/'it' being, of course, the all-encompassing and still evolving phenomenon of Covid-19 or coronavirus, to which ROAPE returns in consecutive editorials. And with good reason for, as others have already observed, the time of coronavirus is not just leaving an indelible mark on the year 2020, but might well be transforming neoliberal capitalism in previously unimaginable ways. Thus, while recognising the wisdom in the suggestion by Theophanidis (2020) for academic and intellectual 'distancing' from a still unfolding Covid-19, it would be hard to justify not returning to it here, given its still evolving impact on both global and African society and economy (Boseley 2020), but also the informative exchange already under way on the ROAPE blogpost (Roape.net n.d.) and elsewhere on its extensive networks. In any case, and to slightly modify de Waal's (2020) observation about epidemics in general, practically every country will face coronavirus, 'the only question is timing, trajectory and impact.' Thus the virus continues its inexorable advance (Johns Hopkins University n.d.) And, having taken some time to reach Africa from Europe and Asia, has spread rapidly since its reported arrival in mid February, with confirmed cases numbering some 4300 people spread across 46 African countries in late March (African Arguments 2020), and more than 9000 people in 47 countries by the end of the first week of April (ACSS 2020a). As elsewhere, increasing infection numbers (and, sometimes, rates), imploding economies and disrupted social interactions have fuelled mutually reinforcing health and economic crises, precipitating sometimes chaotic and often panic (chain) reactions (Zeleza 2020).And this despite, or sometimes because of, high-level policy and other discussions about, and adoption of, frequently exceptional measures which aim to slow the transmission and spread of the virus (Ciakudia 2020; Richards 2020), and prevent the worsening of what is already considered by many as a global crisis of unprecedented threat, impact and uncertainty (Elliott 2020;Freedland 2020;Jayaram et al. 2020). In th...

Differentiated agrarian vulnerabilities and generalized national responses to COVID‐19 in the Upper West Region of Ghana

“…COVID-19 has highlighted the stark local and global inequalities (Cline-Cole, 2020;Lawrence, 2020). With the sustained attention by elite officials on urban and economic epicentres and "core occupations," it is important to examine how rural/agrarian populations experience the pandemic.…”

“…Recent reports however indicate that the subsequent waves of the pandemic may be having more devastating effects on the continent, fuelled by new virus strains (Quakyi, 2021). These emerging dynamics, coupled with the economic shocks from the first wave, poorly resourced public healthcare, and heavy reliance on informal economic systems, are worsening Africa's disposition to COVID-19 and exacerbating hardship among already vulnerable groups (Cline-Cole, 2020;Lawrence, 2020).…”