Did the Pandemic Teach us Something New about Class?

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The COVID-19 pandemic not only radically transformed societies around the world but also illuminated some of their fundamental processes and lines of conflicts. One of the phenomena the pandemic made visible was the question of social inequality and class structures. The COVID-19 pandemic quickly demonstrated many well-known existing inequalities, especially along the lines of socioeconomic and racial or ethnic conditions. Besides these widely known patterns of stratifications, did COVID-19 reveal something new about the topics of inequality and class? Did COVID-19 indicate any changes in the formation of, and conflicts between, the interests and stratifications of classes? This chapter argues yes, and that such transformations point out the contours of what the author has previously called “geosocial classes,” understood as classes defined by a social group’s relations to earthly conditions of subsistence. By considering and analyzing different sorts of empirical examples from the pandemic, the goal of this chapter is thus twofold: on the one hand, to bring into play an alternative perspective for analyzing the class mechanisms of COVID-19 and, on the other hand, by doing so, strengthening the theoretical hypothesis of an emerging geosocial class landscape.
Original languageDanish
Title of host publicationCOVID-19 : Cultural Change and Institutional Adaptations
EditorsJ. Michael Ryan
Number of pages19
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Publication date2022
Pages58-76
Chapter5
ISBN (Electronic)9781003302612
Publication statusPublished - 2022

ID: 324553214