The COVID-19 Contagion–Pandemic Dyad: A View from Social Sciences

Carlos Miguel Ferreira, Maria José Sá, José Garrucho Martins and Sandro Serpa
Additional contact information
Carlos Miguel Ferreira: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences—CICS.NOVA, ISCTE—University Institute of Lisbon, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
Maria José Sá: CIPES—Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, 4450-137 Matosinhos, Portugal
José Garrucho Martins: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences—CICS.NOVA, ISCTE—University Institute of Lisbon, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
Sandro Serpa: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences—CICS.NOVA, ISCTE—University Institute of Lisbon, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal

Societies, 2020, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: The objective of this concept paper focuses on the relevance of the analytical potential of Social Sciences for understanding the multiple implications and challenges posed by the COVID-19 contagion–pandemic dyad. This pandemic is generating a global threat with a high number of deaths and infected individuals, triggering enormous pressure on health systems. Most countries have put in place a set of procedures based on social distancing, as well as (preventive) isolation from possible infected and transmitters of the disease. This crisis has profound implications and raises issues for which the contribution of Social Sciences does not seem to be sufficiently mobilised. The contribution of Social Sciences is paramount, in terms of their knowledge and skills, to the knowledge of these problematic realities and to act in an informed way on these crises. Social Sciences are a scientific project focused on interdisciplinarity, theoretical and methodological plurality. This discussion is developed from the systems of relationships between social phenomena in the coordinates of time and place, and in the socio-historical contexts in which they are integrated. A pandemic is a complex phenomenon as it is always a point of articulation between natural and social determinations. The space of the discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as the expression of a coalition of discourses, i.e., the interaction of various discourses, combined in re-interpretative modalities of certain realities and social phenomena. The circumstantial coalitions of interests, which shape the different discursive records and actions produced by different agents of distinct social spaces, enable the acknowledgement and legitimation of this pandemic threat and danger, and the promotion of its public management.

Keywords: COVID-19; social sciences; inequality; pandemic; contagion; social distancing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/10/4/77/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/10/4/77/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:10:y:2020:i:4:p:77-:d:424088

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().