Differential Harm: Patterns of Uneven Destruction

Yuri Di Liberto

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2023, vol. 2, 1-10

Abstract: This essay opposes the idea that contemporary critical events like pandemics, global warming, environmental deterioration, et cetera, are to be considered as affecting humanity in a uniform way. Instead of seeing these phenomena like abstract universal threats, I propose to look at them through the lens of my concept of differential harm. By drawing on interdisciplinary sources, this concept aims at covering a series of processes that are best described in differential, rather than absolute, terms. By the same token, differential harm is a matter of scale. Moreover, this essay also suggests that macroscopic critical processes are better understood as instances of harm, rather than violence. Instead of framing macroscopic disruptive phenomena as simple calamities or crises, my approach also aims at acknowledging their social, political, and psychological dimensions.

Keywords: differential harm; climate; pandemic; power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:espost:273310

DOI: 10.46586/harm.2023.11024

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