Ashali Bhandari, Transitions Research; Vikrom Mathur, Transitions Research
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been evenly distributed in cities across the globe. Lockdowns and social distancing mandates have disproportionately disrupted access to livelihoods and basic services for vulnerable communities. To manage the pandemic, global calls for solidarity have paved the way for a reordering of relations in cities as communities mobilised to care for each other, especially in cities in the Global South where formal health care systems collapsed. From neighbours setting up community kitchens to feed those in need to strangers helping each other locate ICU beds over social media platforms, the COVID crisis has galvanised communities into collective action.
Scholars like Durkheim and Mary Douglas view social solidarity as the glue that holds us together and shapes our collective responsibility towards each other. The solidarities that have brought together diverse actors to care for and support each other through collective action might hold? potential to inspire new solutions for society.
This panel aims to investigate the plural sources of collective action and social innovation that have brought people together during the pandemic. This panel welcomes papers exploring questions like:
1.? How does social solidarity emerge and what lessons are there to sustain these efforts, addressing societal challenges??
2.? What has been the role of identity, altruism and/or reciprocity in producing collective action during the pandemic??
3. What, if any, was the use of socio-technical innovation and digital technologies in creating and disseminating knowledge that resulted in social solidarity?
