The Frontline as Performative Frame: An Analysis of the UK COVID Crisis

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the multiple significations of the “frontline” metaphor in the UK during the first ten months of COVID-19. We argue that the term “frontline” has operated as a performative frame, which has helped to produce the very notion and the materialization of the “COVID-19 frontline” and keyworkers. Showing how the UK government has repeatedly cited this metaphor, we outline the contradictory effects it has generated through an interplay of hyper-visibility and opaqueness. The frontline metaphor has been used to justify the government's injection of massive amounts of public money into the economy, render hyper-visible workers who had previously been invisible, whilst generating a sense of civic responsibility. Simultaneously, however, the metaphor has created a smokescreen for corrupt practices, deflecting attention away from resource-starved health and social care infrastructures and intensifying forms of “everyday bordering” and “everyday racism” that deepen structural injustices in the UK.

The phraseology of ‘frontline’ in the Covid-19 pandemic

“…The proverbial frontline and frontline workers of the Covid-19 pandemic have already come under some scrutiny in the scholarly literature, notably from sociological perspectives (e.g. [11]), but also linguistically, in terms of war metaphors [12,13,14] and discursive constructions of 'frontline' occupations [15,16]. The narrative of war and its associated frontline has been found to co-opt health workers, in particular, into the unwilling role of 'hero' or 'soldier' [6,17], while the risks and sacrifices of other keyworker roles, e.g.…”

Deaths and COVID‐19: Talk, silence and alternative realities

“…Furthermore, the state represented itself as under attack and embattled, facing an “invisible enemy” which was unforeseen, once in a lifetime, once in a century, extraordinary. (Farris et al, 2021: 298) As the UK Government repeatedly emphasized that the virus was “unprecedented” (Sim & Tombs, 2022) and that it had done, and was doing, all that could reasonably be done to protect people's lives, such claims withstood little critical scrutiny. Governments around the globe were all faced with the same virus—and, indeed, the UK was in the favorable position of not being one of the first countries to be affected in the world or even in Europe.…”

“…Governments around the globe were all faced with the same virus—and, indeed, the UK was in the favorable position of not being one of the first countries to be affected in the world or even in Europe. This did not interrupt the ceaseless militaristic metaphors, while state talk about being on and in the ‘frontline’ was a distraction from state delay, incompetence, self‐interest and indeed criminality (Farris et al, 2021, p. 297).…”

“…Third, the briefings and other state talk during this early period of the pandemic, in particular, was deployed to support the “dominant government mantra” that “We're All in it Together” (Farris et al, 2021, p. 294)—a mantra given greater force when, within days of the first lockdown being announced, both the Prime Minister and the Health Minister tested positive for the virus (Sky News, 2020). However, the emptiness of such rhetoric was very quickly exposed, and indeed the discriminatory aspects of the virus was soon revealed as one of its clearest and most devastating effects—as virus effects have ravaged paths through existing structures of vulnerability, these piled physical, economic and social disadvantage upon disadvantage (Bambra et al, 2021).…”

The Social Reproduction of Pandemic Surplus Populations and Global Development Narratives on Inequality and Informal Labour

“…. In the UK, the metaphor of the 'COVID-19 frontline' enabled the intensification of key workers' labour(Farris et al, 2021).…”