Historical Touchstones and Imagined Futures During Covid-19 in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Bibliographic Data

ID2145174
AuthorsH T Battles (0000-0001-8814-2625, Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, corresponding author), Bethany Sanders (Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Year2022
Volume32
Issue3
Pages253-265
Publication date2022-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2022.2113500
OpenAlexW4313143707
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

During the COVID-19 pandemic to date, particular histories have come to serve as touchstones for the pandemic experience. The specific form this historical imagination takes can be significant as it is likely to shape people’s understandings and responses to the pandemic with consequences for official policy, community action and public behaviour. This research examines this imaginative space in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s public media during COVID-19, asking what past epidemics have been invoked and how. We conducted a content and thematic analysis of media stories in Aotearoa/NZ from February 2020 to December 2021. This analysis reveals how historical experiences are made meaningful in the context of the present crisis, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted New Zealanders to look back on their histories for lessons and cautionary tales as they imagine possible futures. While the 1918 flu was the most frequent touchstone in both years, the focus of the stories changed, reflecting changes in public health policies. In 2020, the stories mirrored the major public health measures enacted by the government, namely isolation and quarantine requirements and lockdowns. They focused on anchoring the present in past experiences, collectively framing the ‘extraordinary’ as something more ‘ordinary’ and thus helping people to cope with the new crisis. In 2021, the focus on Māori populations increased, reflecting the emerging disparities in vaccination rates, as did explicit messaging encouraging vaccination. The sense of urgency grew, with the past providing impetus for present action, to bring about—or avert—particular imagined futures

Aotearoa · Context (archaeology) · Economic growth · Framing (construction) · Government (linguistics) · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Disaster Management and Resilience · Gender Studies · History