TY - JOUR
T1 - Cascading Crises: Society in the Age of COVID-19
AU - Robinson, Laura
AU - Schulz, Jeremy
AU - Ball, Christopher
AU - Chiaraluce, Cara
AU - Dodel, Matías
AU - Francis, Jessica
AU - Huang, Kuo Ting
AU - Johnston, Elisha
AU - Khilnani, Aneka
AU - Kleinmann, Oliver
AU - Kwon, K. Hazel
AU - McClain, Noah
AU - Ng, Yee Man Margaret
AU - Pait, Heloisa
AU - Ragnedda, Massimo
AU - Reisdorf, Bianca C.
AU - Ruiu, Maria Laura
AU - Xavier da Silva, Cinthia
AU - Trammel, Juliana Maria
AU - Wiborg, Øyvind N.
AU - Williams, Apryl A.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of cascading crises. Unlike disasters that are more temporarily and spatially bounded, the pandemic has continued to expand across time and space for over a year, leaving an unusually broad range of second-order and third-order harms in its wake. Globally, the unusual conditions of the pandemic—unlike other crises—have impacted almost every facet of our lives. The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities and created new vulnerabilities related to social isolation, incarceration, involuntary exclusion from the labor market, diminished economic opportunity, life-and-death risk in the workplace, and a host of emergent digital, emotional, and economic divides. In tandem, many less advantaged individuals and groups have suffered disproportionate hardship related to the pandemic in the form of fear and anxiety, exposure to misinformation, and the effects of the politicization of the crisis. Many of these phenomena will have a long tail that we are only beginning to understand. Nonetheless, the research also offers evidence of resilience on several fronts including nimble organizational response, emergent communication practices, spontaneous solidarity, and the power of hope. While we do not know what the post COVID-19 world will look like, the scholarship here tells us that the virus has not exhausted society’s adaptive potential.
AB - The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of cascading crises. Unlike disasters that are more temporarily and spatially bounded, the pandemic has continued to expand across time and space for over a year, leaving an unusually broad range of second-order and third-order harms in its wake. Globally, the unusual conditions of the pandemic—unlike other crises—have impacted almost every facet of our lives. The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities and created new vulnerabilities related to social isolation, incarceration, involuntary exclusion from the labor market, diminished economic opportunity, life-and-death risk in the workplace, and a host of emergent digital, emotional, and economic divides. In tandem, many less advantaged individuals and groups have suffered disproportionate hardship related to the pandemic in the form of fear and anxiety, exposure to misinformation, and the effects of the politicization of the crisis. Many of these phenomena will have a long tail that we are only beginning to understand. Nonetheless, the research also offers evidence of resilience on several fronts including nimble organizational response, emergent communication practices, spontaneous solidarity, and the power of hope. While we do not know what the post COVID-19 world will look like, the scholarship here tells us that the virus has not exhausted society’s adaptive potential.
KW - COVID-19
KW - resilience
KW - inequality
KW - vulnerability
KW - pandemic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104319867&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85104319867&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00027642211003156
DO - 10.1177/00027642211003156
M3 - Article
SN - 0002-7642
VL - 65
SP - 1608
EP - 1622
JO - American Behavioral Scientist
JF - American Behavioral Scientist
IS - 12
ER -