COVID-19 and the Challenges of Trauma and Transformations

Ananta Kumar Giri is a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India.Saji Varghese is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India.

“This courageous collection transcends both epidemiology and social engineering to treat the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for building a new vision of globality, humanity and solidarity, in which trauma can become one of the ingredients of a politics of hope.” —Arjun Appadurai, Emeritus Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, USA.“As humans disturb the delicate balance of life-supporting ecosystems, pandemics such as COVID-19, will become more frequent and take higher tolls on human health. It is vital that we learn from past pandemics to safeguard the health of humans and the planet. This volume takes us beyond technical management of pandemics, to a wide range of psychological, social, ethical, political and spiritual insights that can help us to live in harmony with nature, with beauty, dignity and dialogue. It’s a very timely volume with deep insights.” —Paul Shrivastava, Professor, The Pennsylvania State University, USA; Co-President, The Club of Rome, Italy.“The book challenges conventional approaches to COVID-19 and encourages us to think about it and its implications for individual, community, society and the world in creative ways.” —Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Professor of Political Science, Florida State College, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

• Foreword- Paul Schwartzentruber; Preface; Notes on Editors and Contributors; COVID-19 and the Challenges of Trauma and Transformations: An Introduction and An Invitation-Ananta Kumar Giri and Saji Varghese; Part I COVID-19 AND THE CHALLENGES OF TRAUMA AND TRANSFORMATIONS: ETHICS, POLITICS AND RESPONSIBILITY, Chapter 1 COVID-19 and the Challenges of Trauma and Responsibility: Ethics, Politics and Spirituality and Alternative Planetary Futures-Ananta Kumar Giri; Chapter 2 Post-COVID Communities: Immanent Engagements and Intersectional Transversality-Janae Sholtz; Chapter 3 On the Political Use of a Scientific Concept: ‘Herd Immunity’ and the Unconscious of the COVID-19 Pandemic-Piet Strydom; Chapter 4 Citizen Science, COVID-19 and Ethics- Soraj Hongladarom; Chapter 5 Biopolitics in the Age of Global Pandemics: On the State Regulation of Human Life-Tony See Sin Heng; Chapter 6 Sri Lanka: Politics of COVID-19 and the Rise and Fall of Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government-S. I. Keethaponcalan; Chapter 7 COVID-19 Pandemic: Societal Disvalues as the Ethical Questions-Pius V. Thomas; Chapter 8 The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Life and Public Health-Ravichandran Moorthy and Guido Benny; Part II COVID-19, SPIRITUALITY AND OTHER INITIATIVES IN HOPE AND CREATIVE LEARNING, Chapter 9 What can COVID teach us?-Marcus Bussey; Chapter 10 COVID-19, Social Media, and Desire for Omnipresence: The Search for the Resurrected Body of Christ-Camila Mozzini-Alister; Chapter 11 Corona Pandemic, Evil and the Hope for a Resurgent Future- Gianluigi Segalerba; Chapter 12 The Freedom of Choice in the Face of a Pandemic-Daniel Aigbona; Chapter 13 The Current Crisis due to COVID-19 Pandemic: A Philosophical Approach on technological way of handling nature- Deborah Moreira Guimaraes; Chapter 14 COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Global Approach Through Breathing- Edgar Lyra; Chapter 15 Reminder of Being a Global ‘Self’-Saji Varghese; Chapter 16 Beyond the Binaries: Cosmic Spirituality for the Pandemic Age- Augustine Pamplany; Afterword-David Blake Willis; Index