COVID-19, democracies, and (de)colonialities

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Authors

Scauso, Marcos S.
FitzGerald, Garrett
Tickner, Arlene B.
Behera, Navnita Chadha
Pan, Chengxin
Shih, Chih-yu
Shimizu, Kosuke

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Berghahn Journals

Abstract

Liberal democracies often include rights of participation, guarantees of protection, and policies that privilege model citizens within a bounded territory. Notwithstanding claims of universal equality for “humanity,” they achieve these goals by epistemically elevating certain traits of identity above “others,” sustaining colonial biases that continue to favor whoever is regarded more “human.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these fault lines, unveiling once more the often-hidden prevalence of inequalities that are based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and other axes of power and their overlaps. Decolonial theories and practices analyze these othering tendencies and inequalities while also highlighting how sites of suffering sometimes become locations of solidarity and agency, which uncover often-erased alternatives and lessons.

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Keywords

Colonial, COVID-19 pandemic, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Decolonial, Democracy, Inequality, Othering

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Scauso, M.S., FitzGerald, G., Tickner, A.B. et al. 2020, 'COVID-19, democracies, and (de)colonialities', Democratic Theory, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 82-93.