Bacevic, Jana and McGoey, Linsey (2024) Liberal fatalism, Covid-19 and the politics of impossibility. Economy and Society, 53 (1). pp. 163-182. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2312710
Bacevic, Jana and McGoey, Linsey (2024) Liberal fatalism, Covid-19 and the politics of impossibility. Economy and Society, 53 (1). pp. 163-182. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2312710
Bacevic, Jana and McGoey, Linsey (2024) Liberal fatalism, Covid-19 and the politics of impossibility. Economy and Society, 53 (1). pp. 163-182. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2312710
Abstract
How liberal governments manage knowledge, ignorance, prediction, and uncertainty has attracted increased attention across the social sciences. In this article, we analyse the strategy and rhetoric of the UK Government during the Covid-19 pandemic, with particular attention to the first half of 2020. We see the initial UK policy response – as well as its later legitimation – as a form of ‘politics of impossibility’, effecting political change through claims of incapacity or impotence. We argue this approach departs from the uses of knowledge and ignorance in both classical liberalism and neoliberalism, and suggests the emergence of a new, hybrid form of governance which can be dubbed liberal fatalism. We discuss the relevance of this new form of governance for political futures of an increasingly volatile world.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | liberal fatalism, Covid-19, strategic ignorance, behavioural science, UK Government, pandemics |
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology and Criminology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 22 Feb 2024 15:52 |
Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2024 13:48 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/37512 |
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Filename: Liberal fatalism COVID 19 and the politics of impossibility.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0