Description:
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact - a tragic loss of life, changes to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others, and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives.
In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? How can things be different when this is over?
Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, the book highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups, and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lara-Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge.
This truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close, and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.
Brief description: Kandida Purnell is Associate Professor of International Relations at Richmond, The American International University in London, UK.
Review Quotes:
"A timely meditation on crisis, response, resilience and death in the 21st century. A must-read." Toni Haastrup, University of Stirling
"A powerful and moving cycle of reflective and analytical moments, different voices coming together to make sense, rummaging through personal archives and memory and finding anguish, despair and even hope." Yoav Galai, Royal Holloway, University of London
"Hugely illuminating and harrowing, laying bare how loss, burden, sacrifice and grief were mediated by existing systemic inequalities and discrimination." Andreas Papamichail, Queen Mary University of London
"An insightful, multidisciplinary tribute to the UK lives disrupted and lost by the COVID-19 pandemic.... a poignant reminder of the worldwide shared collective trauma, [which will] hopefully inspire us to ensure we're better prepared for future pandemics." Adam Kamradt-Scott, Dr Jiang Yanyong Visiting Professor, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
"Empathetic and urgent ... an essential resource to challenge our ambivalent return to 'normality' and the inequities and inequalities on which it is founded and conceals." Katharine Millar, London School of Economics and Political Science