The Pandemic in Britain

Offers a political and sociological critique of the UK government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, interpreting the inadequacies of policy as the results of neoliberal ideology, protection of corporate interests, Brexit nationalism, and peculiarities of a model of capitalism based on international trade and labour market precarity.

Sean Creaven is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at the University of the West of England, UK. His research interests include the sociology of modernity and postmodernity, sociological theory, critical theory, Marxism and Post-Marxism, critical realism and criminological theory. He is the author of Against the Spiritual Turn: Marxism, Realism, and Critical Theory (Routledge, 2010), Emergentist Marxism: Dialectical Philosophy and Social Theory (Routledge, 2007), and Marxism and Realism: A Materialistic Application of Realism in the Social Sciences (Routledge, 2000).

Introduction: Anatomy of the UK Pandemic 1. The Road to Lockdown 2. Healthcare Shortages and the Ventilator Challenge 3. Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Welfare 4. Premature Unlockings and the Later Lockdowns 5. Border Insecurities 6. Communicative Ambivalence and Test and Trace 7. Mask Scepticism 8. Freedom Day Conclusions: Beyond Freedom?