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COVID and SocietySubscribe to COVID and Society

Expanding Discursive Spaces: Community Radio during COVID-19 and Beyond

Vol. 55, Issue No. 49, 12 Dec, 2020
Locating the ongoing migrant worker crisis in the politics of voice poverty and lack of access to spaces of representation, the article examines the role played by a grass-roots medium like community radio in India and elsewhere to provide discursive spaces for interest articulation for marginalised communities. Despite the lack of public funding and state support, community radio stations across India have risen to the occasion by broadcasting locally relevant information in local languages and helped mobilise communities to deal with the crisis. The article suggests that genuine democratisation of media may yet be possible with appropriate measures to address issues of information access and communicative equity.

Restoring Employment and Rural Landscapes

Vol. 55, Issue No. 49, 12 Dec, 2020
Rajkamal Goswami, Shreya Bedia, Nitin Pandit

The national lockdown unleashed an unprecedented economic crisis on millions of poor urban migrants who lost their employment and were forced to “reverse-migrate” to their homes on foot over vast distances. However, the rural areas—from where they originated—were already reeling under severe and rapid economic and ecological degradation and were ill-equipped to deal with this sudden increase in the demand for livelihood opportunities. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of “ecological restoration” of primarily rural landscapes in India to generate rapid and high-volume employment along with other co-benefits.

Can There be Reflexivity in Times of Crisis?

Vol. 55, Issue No. 46, 21 Nov, 2020
Dhriti Sonowal, Chandreyee Goswami

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Viral Nostalgia and the Case of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Vol. 55, Issue No. 45, 07 Nov, 2020
In the last few months, the digital community has effectively responded to the overwhelming changes brought forth by the global calamity with definitive expressions of nostalgia, among other things. The multifarious digital platforms have gone viral with old images, posts, and memories of intimacy and sociality, expressing a yearning for the pre-pandemic times and the restoration of “normalcy.” This article seeks to locate the close connection between illness and nostalgia by tracing its evolution through the fraught medical history of “homesickness” and its “nosological mutation” under the sway of industrial modernity. Finally, the article seeks to understand the current onrush of nostalgia and its significance as the affective aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis engulfing the world.

The Future of Work in the Post-COVID-19 World

Vol. 55, Issue No. 44, 31 Oct, 2020
Elia Rossi, José Balsa-Barreiro

Without employment providing a structure in people’s lives and with technology replacing many human activities, our societies will likely shift towards more individualistic entities with less human interaction.

Classical Music and the Pandemic

Vol. 55, Issue No. 43, 24 Oct, 2020
Radhika Joshi

As the concert stage is left empty, what can music and musicians do differently for the art form?

​The Circle of Reason in a Post-COVID-19 World

Vol. 55, Issue No. 43, 24 Oct, 2020
Anil Fakira Kshirsagar

Amitav Ghosh’s novel goads us to seriously rethink our world, and finds new relevance under current circumstances.

Disability during COVID-19

Vol. 55, Issue No. 39, 26 Sep, 2020
Srei Chanda, T V Sekher

COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns have severely curtailed the mobility of persons with disabilities, restricted their ability to seek basic necessities, healthcare, and assistance. Uncertainty on the disbursement of financial protection schemes meant for persons with disabilities have exacerbated their existing financial precarity. At this juncture, obstacles in accessing healthcare should be identified, facilities should be made affordable, and financial support should be exclusively planned for persons with disabilities to save them from the dreadful risk of the coronavirus and its aftermath.

Covid-19 Progression

Vol. 55, Issue No. 39, 26 Sep, 2020
Ravi Duggal

Countries across the world are relying on trial-and-error interventions to arrest the COVID-19 pandemic. But, even as health systems are close to breaking down and economies are flailing while underprivileged citizens are battling unprecedented social and financial catastrophes, most governments are failing to provide appropriate social security and relief.

Neo-liberal Reforms in Higher Education Accelerated by the Pandemic

Vol. 55, Issue No. 39, 26 Sep, 2020
Debashis Biswas

Neo-liberalism’s claim of being the vanguard of individual freedom works as the basis of popular support for education system reforms, which aim at making society receptive to the principles of free market. In the process, contents and methods of teaching–learning are redesigned to build public consent for those reforms, while the real objectives are to possibly ensure a steady flow of skilled human resource for the market. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant changes in the education system are being used to increase acceptability of the reforms.

The New Body Politics

Vol. 55, Issue No. 37, 12 Sep, 2020
K Rajasekharan Nayar, Shabana Roze Chowdhury, Arati P Rao, Anant Kumar, Lekha Bhat

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Emerging Governmentality and Biopolitics of COVID-19 in India

Vol. 55, Issue No. 37, 12 Sep, 2020
Abraham Samuel, Gorky Chakraborty, K J Joy

Measures like disciplining and quarantining are associated with the governments’ extraordinary powers during unprecedented times. In this context, the biopolitics of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is discussed. When the steps taken by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus are failing, we need new imageries to tackle the challenges that lie ahead of us.

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