Contradictory and Compounding: The Social Implications of COVID-19

Abstract

AbstractThe economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 global pandemic are both immediate and pervasive, and potentially profound. In this chapter, I take a social geographical perspective on both acute and chronic consequences, centering around the idea of the social, the hard edge of inequality, and social justice. These three components help to frame two key relationships that arguably emerge as socioeconomic consequences of the global pandemic: (1) the contradictory relationship between social distancing and social infrastructure and (2) the compounding relationship between economic hardship and so-called deaths of despair. In effect, social distancing undermines the density of social bonds and closeness so essential to social infrastructure such as libraries, markets, and care homes. Conversely, the sudden rise in mass unemployment may have long-term socioeconomic consequences for already increasing rates of suicide and drug/alcohol overdose in nations such as the US and the UK.