Covid-19, pandemic risk and inequality: emerging social science insights at 24 months

Abstract

In this editorial, we introduce a special thematic collection of articles published in this current issue, and earlier in 2021, which develop a range of social science approaches to studying and theorising pandemic risk, largely focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. We structure this editorial essay in two parts. First, we consider the challenges of theorising pandemics with an attentiveness to inequality. We consider what different theoretical approaches have brought and can bring to studying risk and inequality, before developing a more in-depth consideration of the work of Mary Douglas for this purpose. We draw out key features of Douglas’s work on ‘centre and periphery’, alongside the related group dynamics and tensions which are configured by, and help reproduce, social inequalities. Second, we then develop a dialogue between these analytical sensibilities around inequality, drawn from Douglas, and various conceptualisations and findings emerging in the eight studies published on pandemics in Health, Risk and Society this year (4 in this issue, 4 appearing earlier in the year). Douglas’s work, which has often been neglected in studies of inequalities and risk, provides valuable insights into institutional dynamics of culture and power. The eight recent studies in the journal include some conducted in contexts, and by researchers, located towards the global economic and academic periphery. This diversification, beyond the usual social and governmental contexts, and alongside the growing involvement of different epistemic communities, introduces and cultivates valuable insights, for the field of risk, inequality and health more generally, and for grasping the global phenomena of the pandemic.