Negotiating the Pandemic

Inayat Ali has recently completed his PhD in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, AustriaRobbie Davis-Floyd is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rice University, USA, and specializes in the anthropology of reproduction.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world, but differently in different places. Thus, everywhere it is possible to talk about life and experience before the pandemic, and how things are different now. These statements are true and matter because in all places in the world the pandemic has been a force and a presence that cannot be ignored. It is on this basis that this illuminating and insightful global collection gives rise to what the editors call Covidian anthropology, the ethnographic and auto-ethnographic examination of sociocultural constructions of and negotiations around COVID-19 at the individual, local, sociocultural, national, and global levels. Addressing a wide array of issues of anthological concern, the chapters in this volume affirm that COVID-19 is far more than a biomedical issue in that it shapes and is shaped by culture, hierarchy, inequality, social vulnerability, meaning, and agency as it engages the fault lines of society. This book is a must read within and beyond the academy as we try to make sense of the pandemic and its multiple impacts on our lives." - Merrill Singer, University of Connecticut

• Introduction, 1. My Great-Grandmother, Malinowski, and my "Self", 2. Negotiating Covid-19 in The Media, 3. Loss and Longing for the Field During Covid-19 in Australia, and Finding it Again because "Ngukurr is Everywhere", 4. Negotiating Covid-Related Stigma and Health-Seeking Behaviors in Kenya, 5. How us Maternity Care Providers Conceptualize Covid-19 and Negotiate Practice Changes, 6. Health Literacy and Information Fatigue, 7. Negotiating Risks, Boundaries and Meanings of Protective Practices Against Covid-19 in Switzerland, 8. Practicing Resilience While Negotiating the Pandemic, 9. Negotiating Covid-19 in Russia on the Eve of the Introduction of Social Restrictions, 10. The Quest for a Cure for Covid-19, 11. How do Small-To-Medium Enterprises (Smes) Negotiate the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia?, 12. Sri Lankans’ Negotiations Around Covid-19, 13. Negotiating Covid-19 in Bhutan, 14. Negotiating India During the Covid-19 Crisis: Issues and Challenges, 15. Contesting Covid-19 In Bangladesh, 16. Social Constructions of the Concept of Covid-19 in Pakistan, 17. Local Perceptions of Covid-19 in Pakistan’s Sindh Province, 18. Negotiating Shopping Behaviors After the Outbreak of Covid-19 in Pakistan, 19. How Students Negotiated a University Closure, Conclusions