Preston / Firth Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-3-030-57714-8
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 116 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

This book considers how the UK government’s response to the recent COVID-19 pandemic disadvantages the working class, and how mutual aid, based on anarchist principles, can be used as a force for social change.The authors draw on Marxist and anarchist thought in class theory and social movement analysis to demonstrate that the virus and its material and discursive consequences are an active part of continuing class struggle and class interpolation. Preston and Firth examine how plans for quarantine and social isolation systematically work against the needs of the working class, and rely on classed assumptions about how markets and altruism operate. In the face of neoliberal methods of dealing with a pandemic, ranging from marketization, disaster capitalism, to a strengthening of the State,  Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom explains how radical alternatives such as social movements and mutual aid can be implemented to better cope with current and future crises.

Zielgruppe

Popular/general

Autoren/Hrsg.

Preston, John

Firth, Rhiannon

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.-  2.  The Viracene and Capitalism.- 3. Classed Practices: Pandemic Preparedness in the UK.- 4. Mutual Aid, Anarchist Preparedness and COVID-19.

Über Autor(innen)

John Preston is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK.  Rhiannon Firth is Senior Research Officer in Sociology at the University of Essex, UK.