Pandemic transition: Techno-politics and social reproduction struggles

Abstract

What are the impacts this pandemic is leaving on politics? In this essay, I will argue that Covid-19 – beyond the rhetoric of exceptionalism or denialism – is unveiling some ‘structural’ features of Western capitalist-societies – on one side, the pervasiveness of digital technologies shaping more and more the public sphere; on the other side, social reproduction as contested terrain between divergent forces. The erosion of spaces for decision-making in liberal democracies seems to be questioned by the emergence of practices of mutualism and claims for common goods.