What does the Covid-19 crisis reveal about interdisciplinarity in social sciences?

Abstract

In memory of Giovanbattista Sgritta When the first instances of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were reported in late 2019 and early 2020, there were few people who would have imagined the magnitude of the pandemic that we have experienced up to now. News of the virus seemed contained mostly to the epidemiological community and very few social scientists, especially those outside of health research, were raising much of an eyebrow. It was at that time that IRS editorial board decided to launch a Call for papers to stimulate a debate about the COVID-19 pandemic – the socially constructed classification of the epidemiological spread of the virus – with the aim to develop analyses within a pluralistic research community in social sciences. The call was open to empirical, analytical, and theoretical papers on the economic, political, and social issues of the pandemic. The articles published in this Themed issue are those selected among the many which have been submitted along those lines, in the past two years. We are grateful to all authors for their patience and perseverance. Before describing the content of the papers, it is important to distinguish between the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other impacts the spread of the virus has had. There is a clear overlap, but also important distinctions. One way of distinguishing between medical issues and social issues is to differentiate between issues of contagion and underlying systemic issues. Contagion refers to how a virus spreads, how easily it spreads, and how quickly it spreads. The concern of epidemiologists is largely focused onmedical and social issues of contagion. A systemic issue, on the other hand, is one that is a broad underlying factor in how societies operate and includes issues like discrimination and inequalities. Social scientists have a history of focusing on more systemic issues. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has blurred those distinctions (to the extent that they existed). For example, we know that underlying issues of inequality – i.e. access to healthcare, healthy living conditions, types of employment, access to information – are directly linked to contagion. We now have clear evidence of strong associations between race/ethnicity, sexual identity, social class, and geographic location and the likelihood of contracting, or at least being exposed to, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with the unfortunately predictable outcome that those in disadvantaged positions are far more likely to be exposed, contract, and die from the virus (Germain & Yong, 2020;