Open AccessCovid-19 and freedom
Author(s) -
Henri Vogt
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
information sur les sciences sociales/social science information
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.301
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1461-7412
pISSN - 0539-0184
DOI - 10.1177/05390184211050850
Subject(s) - covid-19 , democracy , pandemic , construct (python library) , political science , relation (database) , heuristic , sociology , law and economics , epistemology , law , virology , politics , biology , computer science , medicine , philosophy , disease , pathology , database , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language , outbreak
This article examines the multifaceted nature of freedom in relation to the world’s efforts to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim is to show that in democratic societies, increasing societal regulation to stop the spread of the virus does not necessarily curtail all possible conceptions of freedom. On the contrary, we can even construct new institutional realms or community-strengthening mechanisms through which some forms of freedom can materialise in an unforeseen manner. The heuristic model that informs the analysis is composed of six different embodiments of freedom.