Narratives, masks and COVID-19: A qualitative reflection

Abstract

Tracing explanatory narratives of mask-wearing throughout COVID-19, we argue that multiple narratives contribute to the global experience of COVID-19, making it as much a social and political object as it is a scientific one. This assumption drives our commitment to take seriously alternative narratives that do not conform to dominant ones in order to examine how structures of power might privilege particular types of ‘truths’ and with what consequences. We see this reflective piece as a re-articulation of social work’s historic call to interrogate dominant ways of knowing, particularly the ways in which science obscures its own power and politics and sidelines other narratives in the process.