IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/20657_12.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

'Normal was a problem' - post-pandemic futures

In: A Research Agenda for COVID-19 and Society

Author

Listed:
  • Luke Goode

Abstract

This chapter considers how we have been thinking and talking about possible futures beyond COVID-19 while still in the midst of the pandemic. It highlights two dominant frames: a focus on how to re-establish a pre-crisis "normality" on the one hand and, on the other, a reading of the pandemic as both an impetus and opportunity to "build back better". As general orientations, both frames are politically and ideologically ambiguous and this has implications for the range of possible futures that may be built in the pandemic's wake. These rhetorically appealing frames can be exploited by powerful interests, but they also open terrain for potential contestation. The chapter sketches out some basic contours of a research agenda centred on futures discourse in the time of COVID-19. In doing so, it emphasises that what is not said about the future is at least as important as what is said about it.

Suggested Citation

  • Luke Goode, 2022. "'Normal was a problem' - post-pandemic futures," Chapters, in: Steve Matthewman (ed.), A Research Agenda for COVID-19 and Society, chapter 12, pages 195-214, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20657_12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781800885141/9781800885141.00018.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20657_12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.