April 28, 2020

Pandemic Ontologies of Isolation

By António Carvalho and Irina Velicu. The current pandemic may be seen as another confirmation that industrialization, globalization, and the rapid consumption of all resources maximize the kinetic capacity of dangerous pathogens. The war machine against ‘virulent others’ – from nature’s rebels to pathogens – has never really taken a break. Ironically, such destruction of homes or habitats forces many of us now into a privileged ‘stay at home’, an emergent ontology of isolation which reinvents biopolitics and immunopolitics. What is the human political meaning of this ontology of isolation, a passive version of the ‘for the good of mankind’?
March 30, 2020

Coronavirus beyond Coronavirus: thresholds, biopolitics and emergencies

By Emiliano Terán Mantovani. What does the COVID-19 pandemic express, beyond itself? What is its meaning in this precise (geo) political time and what does it tell us about the particular world we face today?