Revisiting the Geography of Globalisation in the Covid-19 Pandemic using Risk Theory

Abstract

My review paper is part of Covid-IAS Project, funded by National Research Council of Thailand. The paper focuses on the geography of globalisation in the Covid -19 pandemic. I employ Ulrich Beck’s concept of risk society to critically examine geography. Although Beck is not a geography theorist, his theory can be used extensively and alternatively to study the geography of globalisation. By drawing upon Beck, I argue that the geography of globalisation in the context of Covid -19 displays forms of dependency upon the politics of knowledge about Covid -19 vaccines. With the production of knowledge, the vaccines have caused various forms of dependency, including global dependency (external knowledge about the effectiveness of the vaccines and their side-effects), regional dependency and international dependency (the EU and its member states), the interplay between global dependency and international dependency (COVAX), and the emergence of the nation states as regional production hubs (AstraZeneca vaccine). Although Beck’s theory enables us to critically investigate the geography of globalisation, Beck ignores the significance of the nation states in globalised risk situation. In contrast with Beck, I suggest that nation states have still played important roles in world risk society, especially in the context of Covid -19.