Political Philosophy in a Pandemic (Book Announcement)

We have some exciting news to share: the first ever Justice Everywhere book is on its way. Entitled Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a More Just Future, it will be published in  print in September by Bloomsbury Academic (pre-order here). We are hoping that the e-book version will be out in the summer. Edited by Fay Niker and Aveek Bhattacharya, two of the convenors of the blog, the idea for the book developed out of the ‘Philosophers’ Rundown on the Coronavirus Crisis’ that we published here in April last year.

Political Philosophy in a Pandemic contains 20 essays on the moral and political implications of COVID-19 and the way governments have responded to it, arranged around five themes: social welfare, economic justice, democratic relations, speech and misinformation and the relationship between justice and crisis. Almost all of the contributors have featured on Justice Everywhere in recent years in form or another, either as authors or interviewees.

Here is a full list of the chapters:

Foreword (Onora O’Neill, Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve)

1. Introduction (Aveek Bhattacharya and Fay Niker)

Part I. Social welfare and vulnerability

2. Risk, disadvantage and the COVID-19 crisis (Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit)

3. How should we distribute scarce medical resources in a pandemic? (Sara Van Goozen)

4. Assessing the impact of school closures on children through a vulnerability lens (Nicolás Brando and Katarina Pitasse Fragoso)

5. Adequate housing in a pandemic (David Jenkins, Katy Wells and Kimberley Brownlee)

Part II. Economic justice

6. Should the older generation pay more of the COVID-19 debt? (David Yarrow)

7. Rebuilding social insurance to end economic precarity (Lisa Herzog)

8. Pandemic solidarity and universal basic income (Diana Popescu)

Part III. Democratic relations 

9. Legitimating pandemic-responsive policy: Whose voices count when? (Rowan Cruft)

10. Living alone under lockdown (Felix Pinkert)

11. Should we hold elections during a pandemic? (Alexandru Volacu)

12. The pandemic and our democratic way of life (Marc Stears)

Part IV. Speech and (mis)information

13. Coronavirus misinformation, social media, and freedom of speech (Jeffrey Howard)

14. What is the democratic state’s obligation of transparency in times of crisis? (Rebecca Lowe)

15. Deferring to expertise in public health emergencies (Viktor Ivanković and Lovro Savić)

16. Should we shame those who ignore social distancing guidelines? (Paul Billingham and Tom Parr)

Part V. Crisis and justice

17. Harnessing the epistemic value of crises for just ends (Matthew Adams and Fay Niker)

18. Living through the pandemic: An experiment in egalitarian living for the middle classes? (Anca Gheaus)

19. Coronavirus and climate change: What can the former teach us about the latter?(Julia Hermann, Katharina Bauer and Christian Baatz)

20. Pandemic as political theory (Adam Swift)