Collective disorientation in the pandemic conjuncture

ABSTRACT

In its far-reaching impacts on global life, encroaching upon seemingly every aspect of social totality, the COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent topic for cultural studies. This article situates the pandemic within a historical conjuncture in which various post-neoliberal formations are being struggled over. These emergent formations will in turn be indelibly impacted by the pandemic’s social, cultural, and political economic dimensions. Key to this uncertain future is a phenomenon we call collective disorientation, a concept that is implicated in the emergence, experience, and effects of the pandemic, as well as the political prospects for surviving the cascading crises of the pandemic conjuncture. Though the pandemic is a historically disorienting force, the cultural studies tradition is remarkably well-equipped to contribute to collective struggles seeking loci for new articulations beyond the COVID-19 conjuncture.

KEYWORDS:

• Disorientation
• COVID-19
• post-neoliberalism
• hypermodernity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Further information

This Special Issue article has been comprehensively reviewed by the Special Issue editors, Associate Professor Ted Striphas and Professor John Nguyet Erni.

Notes

1 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/20/most-americans-see-layoffs-as-temporary-but-research-shows-otherwise.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander J. Means

Alexander J. Means is Associate Professor of Educational Policy with Global Perspectives in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. His research draws on scholarly traditions in sociology and critical theory to examine educational policy and governance in relation to political, economic, cultural, technological, and social change. His most recent book is Learning to Save the Future: Rethinking Education and Work in an Age of Digital Capitalism (2018).

Graham B. Slater

Graham B. Slater is an independent scholar based in Reno, Nevada (USA). He studies the relationship between critical theory, ecology, culture, and the politics of education. His recent work appears in Educational Philosophy and Theory; Policy Futures in Education; Educational Studies; and Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. He co-edited Educational Commons in Theory and Practice: Global Pedagogy and Politics (2017) with Alexander J. Means and Derek R. Ford.