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Author: Liz Stanley

Liz Stanley is Professor of Sociology @ University of Edinburgh, email liz.stanley@ed.ac.uk. I’m a feminist sociologist who works on everyday documents of life, particularly letters, to research social change over time.

Buzz terms

Keywords and buzz terms circulate and recirculate in the media, from health care agencies, journalists, politicians and more, with their meanings largely assumed. Some have become truisms, but without necessarily being true. They help construct what coronavirus, Covid-19, the pandemic et cetera are taken to mean.

Coronavirus / Covid-19 / we’re all in this together / pandemic / herd immunity / the virus doesn’t discriminate / strange times / lockdown / furlough / war / stay home, protect the NHS, save lives / NHS heroes / the frontline / PPE / ICU / testing / new infections / today’s deaths / the numbers show / he’s a fighter / social distancing / the new normal / exit strategy / key workers / flattening the curve / unprecedented / social bubble approach / true frontline / parallel health epidemic / hidden health cost / R-0 and Rt / now is not the time / contact tracing apps / citizen surveillance / test, track and trace / lifting the lockdown / protecting the vulnerable / the 80% of us not vulnerable / segmented shielding / care homes / experts say / following the science / driven by the science / the science says / stay alert / steps to lifting lockdown / mixed messages / R increasing, a second epidemic wave / return to work / schools opening / flock to beaches / arrivals quarantine / air bridge / “It’s one law for them and another for the rest of us.” / finishing the job / return to school / schools closed / masks on public transport / 2 metre social distancing rule / possible local lockdowns / save the summer / pubs and restaurants / primary school opening dropped / lost generation / silent spreaders / it’s not over / travel bubble / community transmission / support bubbles / household symptomless transmission / life after lockdown / 1 metre social distancing / quarantine free holidays / doubling the classroom bubble / experts warn government / lockdown lift / back to school / masks / local lockdown / whack a mole / pop-up test centre / masks and visors / droplets / super spreaders /

and the collection grows.

Sociology On and Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis – BSA event

Interesting papers were given were given at an online symposium on 24 April 2020 hosted by the BSA. Much current discourse is cast in epidemiological terms, while this event firmly returned to the development of a sociological analysis. In order of speaking: Nik Brown drew useful comparisons between the present situation and how people experiencing cystic fibrosis manage their treatments and lives. Ipek Demir discussed the initial failure to take the levels of risk associated with the coronavirus seriously. Bridget Anderson’s presentation was concerned with the present emphasis on the nation and different ways of ‘joining the nation’, with the irony that many of those concerned do not have full citizenship rights and permanency. Susan Halford’s presentation was concerned with the possibility of new futures and seeing the pandemic as a kind of portal to a number of potential futures, both enabling and damaging. Danny Dorling situated the unfolding statistical statements about infections and deaths in the context of long-term trends involving both accelerations and de-accelerations. A podcast of this excellent event, chaired by Sue Scott, is available on the BSA website and on YouTube from here. Liz Stanley

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