In early 2020, news articles documenting a possible coronavirus pandemic began appearing in countries worldwide, and while concerns were rife, few could have envisaged that so many of society’s taken-for-granted routines and norms would endure the disruption so visibly…
The Militarisation of the COVID-19 Response in South Africa (#WitnessingCorona)
The imponderabilia of our COVID times As medical anthropologists well versed in the social grammar of infectious disease, the global spread of the coronavirus has pressed us to the edges of history. Writing from the centre, the ground keeps…
When “Slow Violence” Collides with Visceral Hunger – COVID-19 and the Current and Future Food System of Cape Town, South Africa (#WitnessingCorona)
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated both the unsustainability and the fragility of our current food system, across multiple scales. COVID-19 has proven to be the litmus test for the current industrialized food system, one that has, in certain circles,…
Whose Space is this? A Multispecies Auto-Ethnography of Viral-Human Negotiations in the Contact Zone (#WitnessingCorona)
“Like faces pressed against a window, they leer at me menacingly: their very nearness is what menaces” (Timothy Morton 2013). Co-existing with SARS-CoV-2 is in times of the COVID-19 pandemic without any alternative. I live in the city…
#StayAwake in the Time of Pandemic: A Case of Anti-Government Protests in Slovenia (#WitnessingCorona)
Almost every Saturday afternoon in the past two months, the so called ‘Hygiene-Demo’ takes place at the Rosa Luxemburg Platz in Berlin, where up to thousand people gather. According to local media, the participants protest against the ongoing lockdown…
Why Can’t I Walk Your Dog? Not Accepting Help as a Coping Strategy During the Swiss Lockdown (#WitnessingCorona)
“Et nous souhaitons ici lancer un appel à l’ensemble de la population et notamment un appel aussi aux personnes âgées et vulnérables: Restez à la maison pour protéger votre santé. Évitez autant que possible les contacts avec d’autres personnes”[1]…