From bare life and necropolitics to a feminist care ethic

Ageism in the Covid-19 pandemic and future directions

Bibliographic Data

ID13076263
AuthorsBethany Simmonds (0000-0003-2463-7623, Aberystwyth University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume9
Pages1372926-1372926
Publication date2024-03-07
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2297-7775 • E-ISSN: 2297-7775
PublisherFrontiers Media (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fsoc.2024.1372926
PMID38515652
OpenAlexW4392559346
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

This perspective paper begins with discussing how COVID-19 magnified the pre-pandemic 'bare life' conditions which exposed older people's lives to risks and indignities in the health and social care system. Then, by using the concept of Necropolitics, the life and death decisions, based on age as a proxy measure for population health during the pandemic, are discussed. This discussion includes examples of 'exceptional' practices that were implemented in the UK during the first wave, including 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders, unsafe hospital discharges, not transferring to hospitals, and denying access to treatment for older people. It then goes on to renew the call for a feminist care ethic to be central to the ways in which our future health and social care systems are configured. Arguing for the need to politically reframe ageing, health and social care provision towards a radical alternative system that rethinks care relations and addresses inequality

Cognitive reframing · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Economic growth · Environmental ethics · Health care · Health care rationing · Pandemic · Political science · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Health disparities and outcomes · Healthcare Systems and Challenges · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

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