The Governance of Covid-19: Anthropogenic Risk, Evolutionary Learning, and the Future of the Social State
| Autor: | Gaofeng Meng, Simon Deakin |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Deakin, Simon [0000-0002-1725-5216], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Special Issue: Covid-19
Labour Law and the Renewal of the Social State. Edited by Simon Deakin and Tonia Novitz AcademicSubjects/SOC00280 media_common.quotation_subject Corporate governance Public institution Context (language use) Articles 4801 Commercial Law Principle of legality 4803 International and Comparative Law State (polity) Political economy Political science Generic health relevance Polity AcademicSubjects/LAW00230 Law Welfare State of exception 48 Law and Legal Studies media_common |
| Zdroj: | Industrial Law Journal |
| ISSN: | 1464-3669 0305-9332 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/indlaw/dwaa027 |
| Popis: | We consider the implications of the Covid-19 crisis for the theory and practice of governance. We define ‘governance’ as the process through which, in the case of a given entity or polity, resources are allocated, decisions made and policies implemented, with a view to ensuring the effectiveness of its operations in the face of risks in its environment. Core to this, we argue, is the organisation of knowledge through public institutions, including the legal system. Covid-19 poses a particular type of ‘Anthropogenic’ risk, which arises when organised human activity triggers feedback effects from the natural environment. As such it requires the concerted mobilisation of knowledge and a directed response from governments and international agencies. In this context, neoliberal theories and practices, which emphasise the self-adjusting properties of systems of governance in response to external shocks, are going to be put to the test. In states’ varied responses to Covid-19 to date, it is already possible to observe some trends. One of them is the widespread mischaracterisation of the measures taken to address the epidemic at the point of its emergence in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January and February 2020. Public health measures of this kind, rather than constituting a ‘state of exception’ in which legality is set aside, are informed by practices which originated in the welfare or social states of industrialised countries, and which were successful in achieving a ‘mortality revolution’ in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Relearning this history would seem to be essential for the future control of pandemics and other Anthropogenic risks. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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