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(Reference retrieved automatically from SciELO through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Securitising Covid-19? The Politics of Global Health and the Limits of the Copenhagen School

Full text
Author(s):
Daniel Edler Duarte [1] ; Marcelo M. Valença [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] University of São Paulo - Brasil
[2] Brazilian Naval War College - Brasil
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: Contexto int.; v. 43, n. 2, p. 235-257, 2021-08-16.
Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked controversies over health security strategies adopted in different countries. The urge to curb the spread of the virus has supported policies to restrict mobility and to build up state surveillance, which might induce authoritarian forms of government. In this context, the Copenhagen School has offered an analytical repertoire that informs many analyses in the fields of critical security studies and global health. Accordingly, the securitisation of COVID-19 might be necessary to deal with the crisis, but it risks unfolding discriminatory practices and undemocratic regimes, with potentially enduring effects. In this article, we look into controversies over pandemic-control strategies to discuss the political and analytical limitations of securitisation theory. On the one hand, we demonstrate that the focus on moments of rupture and exception conceals security practices that unfold in ongoing institutional disputes and over the construction of legitimate knowledge about public health. On the other hand, we point out that securitisation theory hinders a genealogy of modern apparatuses of control and neglects violent forms of government which are manifested not in major disruptive acts, but in the everyday dynamics of unequal societies. We conclude by suggesting that an analysis of the bureaucratic disputes and scientific controversies that constitute health security knowledges and practices enables critical approaches to engage with the multiple – and, at times, mundane – processes in which (in)security is produced, circulated, and contested. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 20/05628-1 - Urban laboratories of biometric security: the technopolitics of facial recognition systems in Brazil
Grantee:Daniel Edler Duarte
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral