Discursive genealogies on the Covid-19 pandemic: Reflections on a post-pandemic world ; Genealogías discursivas sobre la pandemia de covid-19. Reflexiones sobre un mundo postpandemia

The objective of this paper is to carry out a critical reflection on the idea of a post-pandemic world, based on the deconstruction of discursive genealogies on the Covid-19 pandemic. First of all, attention is drawn to the fact that the countries of the Global North, apparently better prepared to face this crisis, have experienced a severe impact, particularly in the so-called first wave. This fact becomes even more relevant if we consider that the different indices that predicted a better capacity of these countries to face this type of crisis were initially distorted by the cases of Italy and Spain and, later, by other Global North countries such as the United States. To carry out these discursive genealogies, Michel Foucault's idea of the history of the present was used as a starting point, in terms of the deconstruction of the stories that account for both the novelty, in this case of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the discursive inertias of the past that survive in the discourses on the representations and the government of this type of phenomena. Five discursive genealogies on the pandemic were deconstructed. In the first place, the problem of the definition of a pandemic was addressed, based on the crisis of influenza A, swine flu or H1N1 and the criticism made by the Council of Europe in 2010 of the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Secondly, we reflected on the impact that the management of the H1N1 crisis had on the representations and discursive practices of the Covid-19 pandemic. The dissonance between the low impact of this crisis and the high spending by the countries of the Global North marked the initial management of the Covid-19 crisis, particularly in terms of reducing the perception of insecurity and the overvaluation of capacities. It became evident how the story of the impact of the crisis in Italy and Spain deeply marked the representations that were initially held about this crisis. Third, the interpretive and epistemological frameworks of the governance of ...