Qatar, the Coronavirus, and Cordons Sanitaires

Migrant Workers and the Use of Public Health Measures to Define the Nation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2289017
AutoresN Iskander (0000-0001-7097-5952, Wagner School of Public Service New York University)
Año2020
Volumen34
Número4
Páginas561-577
Fecha de publicación2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12625
PMID33274452
OpenAlexW3107721180
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas22

This article looks at the use of public health strategies to define political membership in the nation. I examine the use of the cordon sanitaire to mitigate the novel coronavirus in Qatar. I argue that it acts primarily as a boundary to map out zones of political exclusion, splitting those who are entitled to protection from disease from those who are not. Through an analysis of the logic, application, and history of the cordon sanitaire in Qatar and elsewhere, I argue that it is only a more explicit example of the ways that governments have applied public health measures such that they apportion exposure to COVID-19, protecting some while mandating exposure for others. Exposure, or protection from it, has become a means to spatialize power and territorialize the national imaginary, separating full members from those who are excluded and reduced to their economic function

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Political science · Politics · Public health · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Medicine · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Virology