Abstract
The current pandemic is sustained in dichotomies and distancing, as most of us awkwardly have recently experienced. Moreover, COVID-19 has definitely put the spotlight on social inequalities that are underpinning our society and it has highlighted the escalation of the state surveillance capability and new forms of oppression too. The discrimination ingrained in our societies, built on a historically defined regime of racialized oppression and structural disadvantage of racialized citizens and migrants, was produced well before the coronavirus, but it is now casting a different shade, reinforcing forms of exclusions, highlighting the pandemic as a political issue. Hence, this paper addresses a range of political perspectives of the lived experiences in and through social space with examples of narratives in language which capture the everyday political experiences of the pandemic within Europe. The kind of language used and its profound effect on the growing discourse regarding COVID-19 is the main focus in this paper. I here explore the intertwining of language and politics during the pandemic and bring out the countervailing narratives that seem to be in constant tension. I then ask where this takes us, not only in terms of scholarship and expansion of knowledge, but also with a pragmatic edge to it, trying to figure out how is it possible for us to achieve some sort of cognitive shift in our approach in order to learn from this challenge and from this new perspective. Methodologically, as well as looking at existing data, references to attitudes in general are made. A theoretical discussion on migration and language, and the kind of intersection between them, is offered, from the point of view of critical theory, before pointing to the metaphors used, the implications they allow, and how all these fit together, in the form of a concluding discussion. Metaphor or not, the power of language in its ramifications of articulations about the pandemic and the idea of distance underlines COVID-19 as a deeply political issue.
Highlights
In a 2019 book, entitled The Unconstructable Earth, the author, Frédéric Neyrat, explores the notion of ecology of separation as a kind of distancing humans need to take in recognition of the limitations of our knowledge and the boundaries we impose on life
I here explore the intertwining of language and politics during the pandemic and bring out the countervailing narratives that seem to be in constant tension
Looking at the legal framework in terms of the governments’ fast responses to coronavirus and how European governments navigated these contradictory tensions of trust under threat of panic and economic downturn, we see narratives raising concern about acts legislated under the radar, which border on restricting civil liberties (IPOL 2020) with no end date to these restrictions in view, so far
Summary
In a 2019 book, entitled The Unconstructable Earth, the author, Frédéric Neyrat, explores the notion of ecology of separation as a kind of distancing humans need to take in recognition of the limitations of our knowledge and the boundaries we impose on (social) life. Against the social organism of our current age, marked by unacknowledged traces of racism and inequalities, he proposes a certain psychology of distance as necessary to reconfigure the political agenda and the nature and texture of our social relations His argument relates to the logic and policies through which otherness is controlled. He argues that by reducing all otherness to the ‘principle of death’ we are constructing a sort of humanity devoid of humans or as he calls it a ‘Wilderness 2.0 (Neyrat 2006) He believes that a kind of distancing as a conception of politics based on forms of separation can facilitate communication with the other and re-imagine human relations. The paper’s focus on language will explore various different political narratives, contextualize the insights which emerge in relation to the concept of distance, and subsequently discuss them as to the meanings they reflect vis-à-vis the themes of migration, trust, and solidarity
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