Coronavirus, Crisis and Culture

Abstract

This volume represents a timely and essential contribution for both scholars and readers of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Whereas the bulk of literary, academic, and investigative coverage of the Pandemic has focussed on factors such as i) maintaining social cohesion, ii) developing a vaccine, iii) fighting fake news, this submission explores the erosion of civil liberties and human rights during the pandemic, the increase of policing and supervisory practices, and the innovative ways in which contemporary social movements have expressed their concerns at the measures governments have put in place.

The volume challenges restrictions placed on freedom of speech, in which contrary opinions to mainstream public discourse have been branded as fake news, disinformation, or conspiratorial. It questions the legitimacy of authoritative voices such as the BBC with regards to the regurgitation of political dogma and the profound lack of investigative reportage therein. The volume examines how new or conventional social movements have responded to the pandemic and how fundamental human and civil rights such as those campaigned for by Black Lives Matter has united people from different backgrounds.