This book is a novel contribution to academic discourses on the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and how it has impacted societies globally. It proffers an overview on the social development and political measures, from both the Global North and Global South, to prevent COVID-19's spread. It illuminates major social, political and economic challenges that already existed in different contexts and which are also currently being amplified by COVID-19. Curiously, this global pandemic has opened spaces for different actors, across the globe, to begin to fundamentally question and challenge the hegemony of the Global North, which sometimes is evident in social work. Linked to the foregoing and while reflecting beyond the pandemic and into the future, the book proposes that social work must become more political at all levels, and strive to transform societies, global social development efforts, and economic and health systems. This contributed volume of 38 chapters discusses and analyses ethical, social, sociological, social work and social development issues that complement and enrich available literature in the socio-political, economics, public health, medical ethics and political science. It provides various case studies which should enable readers to gain insights into how countries have responded to the pandemic and learn how COVID-19 negatively impacted countries in different parts of the world. This book also provides a platform for the articulation of neglected and marginalized voices, such as those of indigenous populations, the poor, or oppressed. The chapters are grouped according to three main themes as they relate to research on the COVID-19 pandemic and social work in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America: Analysis: Social Issues and the COVID-19 Pandemic Strategies and Responses in Social Work: Globally and Locally Outlook: Looking Ahead Beyond the Pandemic Intended to engage a global, diverse and interdisciplinary audience, The Coronavirus Crisis and Challenges to Social Development is a timely and relevant resource for academics, students and researchers in inter alia Social Work, Philosophy, Sociology, Economics, and Development Studies.

The current coronavirus pandemic fundamentally reshapes existing debates and processes in international development. The unprecedented (and rapidly evolving) crisis is generating a number of substantial challenges for developing economies. Governments in low-income nations often find it extremely hard to cope with the increased demand for health services, make prompt decisions and put them into action, protect vulnerable segments of society and offer immediate relief to affected economic sectors. This book provides a series of reflective chapters that demonstrate how several areas of international development have been severely affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. It provides an in-depth critical discussion on how the current pandemic influences several development outcomes (in the domains of poverty/inequality, health, education, migration, formal/informal employment, (de)globalisation, the extractive sector, climate change, water and the global financial system). Each chapter draws policy recommendations on relevant interventions that can alleviate the identified negative repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for the most vulnerable communities in the Global South.

This publication examines the social impact of an unprecedented crisis.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Bringing together a range of experts across various sectors, this important volume explores some of the key issues that have arisen in the Global South with the COVID-19 pandemic. Situating the worldwide health crisis within broader processes of globalisation, the book investigates implications for development and gender, as well as the effects on migration, climate change and economic inequality. Contributors consider how widespread and long-lasting responses to the pandemic should be, while paying particular attention to the accentuated risks faced by vulnerable populations. Providing answers that will be essential to development practitioners and policy makers, the book offers vital insights into how the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socio-economic contexts worldwide.

This book presents an overview of social problems and health problems that arose out of, or were flared up by, the global COVID-19 pandemic. It addresses most vital problems in developed and developing countries from literally around the world, by top country experts in their respective fields of study. The book debates first certain overall thematic topics and then analyzes a number of key country case studies. Apart from a set of key theme/problem-based chapters, the country case studies from major-hit countries in the world are yet another highlight of the book. They also feature, in addition to analyzing the pandemic and policy responses per se, one extra special focal point each. The book hence covers the core of most severe social problems, including health problems, that have been spurred or set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. An overall theory chapter that uses a global data analysis and a short theoretical appraisal on the 'human face' of the Pandemic is also offered at the beginning of book, to bring back humanity and human decency (i.e. decency of the human condition) into the scientific debate as well as policy making arena, which is utterly needed at this point of human development.

COVID Societies presents a compelling and accessible overview of key sociocultural theories that can help us make sense of the diverse, dynamic and complex elements of the COVID crisis. These include discussions of the political economy perspective; biopolitics; risk society and cultures; gender and queer theory; and more-than-human theory. The book provides insights into everyday life around the world as people battled with containing the pandemic and explores the broader historical, social, cultural and political contexts in which these responses have developed. COVID-19 is the most serious pandemic to affect the world in the past century. We have all lived in ‘COVID societies’, the long-term effects of which have yet to be experienced or imagined. The COVID crisis has affected countries, regions within countries and social groups within regions in strikingly different ways. These impacts are continually changing, just as the novel coronavirus has mutated into different strains and variants. Throughout the book, a series of intertwined threads cross back and forth between the macropolitical and micropolitical dimensions of COVID-19: contagion, death, risk, uncertainty, fear, social inequalities, stigma, blame and power relations. Overarching these threads are five complementary themes: the historicity of COVID societies; the tension between local specificities and globalising forces; the control and management of human bodies; the boundary between Self and Other; and the continuously changing sociomaterial environments in which the world is living with and through the shocks of the COVID crisis. This book will be of great interest to anyone seeking to understand the manifold complex sociocultural consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi describe the pluri-dimensional characteristics of the Coronavirus crisis and draw the pillars for a more “multi-resilient” Post-Corona world, including political recommendations on how to generate it.