The virus and the vessel, or

How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Surveillance

Bibliographic Data

ID4237817
AuthorsNitsan Chorev (Brown University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume19
Issue4
Pages1497-1513
Publication date2021-11-03
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocio-Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-1461 • E-ISSN: 1475-147X
DOI10.1093/ser/mwab037
OpenAlexW3201983198
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited11

This Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) Presidential address was given (virtually) at the annual SASE conference in July 2020. It is an early analysis of governments' response to COVID-19, specifically governments' attempt to reduce the spread of the virus by modifying people's behaviors. Some of these attempts followed familiar models of power, such as discipline and governmentality. In addition, I show that a new practice of power emerged, addressing subjects who are considered 'ungovernable'. In the first part of the lecture, I look at how states see their subjects and argue that COVID-19 reveals and normalizes a state's view of subjects as 'unresponsive' and therefore 'ungovernable'. In the second part, I look at how social media companies constitute us as 'ungovernable' and help reshape how states govern. Finally, I discuss instances of resistance, which might save our political agency after all

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Agency (philosophy · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Governmentality · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Presidential system · Public relations · Resistance (ecology · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Computer Science · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Employment and Welfare Studies · Medicine · Law · Virology

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