Titel
Citizenship in times of crisis: biosocial state–citizen relations during COVID-19 in Austria
Autor*in
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Abstract
Drawing upon 152 in-depth qualitative interviews with residents in Austria carried out in the first year of the pandemic, this article discusses how people’s experiences with COVID-19 policies reflect and reshape state–citizen relations. Coinciding with a significant government crisis, the first year of COVID-19 in Austria saw pandemic measures justified with reference to a biological, often medical understanding of health that framed disease prevention in terms of transmission reduction, often with reference to metrics such as hospitalisation rates, etc. Instead of using this biomedical frame, our interviewees, however, drew attention to biopsychosocial dimensions of the crisis and problematised the entanglements between economy and health. We call this the emergence of a biosocial notion of citizenship that is attentive to psychological, social and economic dimensions of health. Insights into the biosocial nature of pandemic citizenship open a window of opportunity for addressing long-standing social injustices.
Stichwort
State–citizen relationsBiosocial citizenshipCOVID-19Pandemic policiesAustriaQualitative interviews
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2007946
Erschienen in
Titel
BioSocieties
ISSN
1745-8552
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Publication
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Fördergeber
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© The Author(s) 2023, corrected publication 2023
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