Files and links (1)
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Lessons from the Viral Body Politic: Borders and the Possibilities of a More-than-Human Worldmaking
International Political Sociology, Vol.18(1), pp.1-19
2024
Abstract
Bordering practices have been a central and controversial feature of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Closed borders, lockdowns, and restrictions on movement and individual “freedoms” have revived concepts of the biopolitical “state of exception” and state control. In this article, we argue that biopolitical critiques of responses to the pandemic fail to grasp the opportunity to rethink worldmaking and instead base their critiques on a desired “return to normal” which foregrounds human-centric individualism at the expense of alternative worldmaking that accounts for the more-than-human. To do so, we bring the virus and the virome into our discussion to rethink bordering practices and how the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects bodies, worlds, and politics. We focus primarily on the Australian case, where the pandemic response began with lockdowns and then gave way to a militarized and individualistic approach. Responses to the pandemic have failed to produce a reimagining of human and more-than-human relations. Opportunities for ethical engagement have been missed, resulting in limited responses that stem from the failure of state capacity and entrenched modes of inequality that are harmful to vulnerable others, both human and more-than-human. This requires an ontological reframing of how we relate to a complex world from a more-than-human perspective.
Details
- Title
- Lessons from the Viral Body Politic: Borders and the Possibilities of a More-than-Human Worldmaking
- Authors
- Stefanie Fishel (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and SocietyChristine Agius (Corresponding Author) - Swinburne University of Technology
- Publication details
- International Political Sociology, Vol.18(1), pp.1-19
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1093/ips/olad025
- ISSN
- 1749-5687; 1749-5679
- Copyright note
- © The Author(s) (2024). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99992798502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
54 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- International Relations
- Political Science
- Sociology