Mapping the unintended costs of COVID-19 Policy Responses

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected all aspects of social, economic, cultural, and political life, including changes in social institutions, labour, and personal relationships. Debates about COVID-19, however, have been dominated by the logic of biomedical, epidemiological, and techno-scientific reasoning and expertise. The social and political effects of COVID-19 itself and its responses seem to occupy a second-tier position in addressing the crisis. Social scientists have been, with few exceptions, largely absent from public discussion and policymaking. We believe social scientists have a duty to explore the underlying intellectual, political, and cultural tensions that the COVID-19 crisis is revealing about social life in Canada and abroad