Why is Life Worth Saving? Neoliberalism, COVID-19, and Boris Johnson’s Public Statements

• Authors: Jeremiah Morelock , Yonathan Listik , Mili Kalia

Title variants

PL

Dlaczego warto ratować życie? Neoliberalizm, COVID-19 i publiczne wypowiedzi Borisa Johnsona

Abstracts

PL

W przedstawionym artykule stosujemy wypracowaną przez Browna Foucaultowską perspektywę ujęcia neoliberalizmu po to, by przyjrzeć się związanemu z pandemią COVID-19 kryzysowi w Zjednoczonym Królestwie. Używając jakościowej analizy treści, staramy się odsłonić moralną logikę stojącą za 32 publicznymi wypowiedziami Borisa Johnsona na temat COVID-19. Podzieliliśmy naszą analizę na sześć części. W pierwszych czterech częściach wykorzystujemy cztery kategorie wskazane przez Browna: ekonomizację, rządzenie, czynienie odpowiedzialnym i poświęcenie. Następnie objaśniamy dwie inne logiki moralne – utylitarystyczną i współczującą. Połączenie tych logik przez Johnsona niesie ideologiczny przekaz o następującej treści: neoliberalna racjonalność służy ludziom i ich wspiera. W ramach perspektywy Browna problemem jest nie tylko dominacja rynku, lecz także legitymizowanie rynku jako logiki skoncentrowanej na człowieku. Proponowane przez nas uzupełnienie polega na rozpoznaniu faktu, że owa skoncentrowana na człowieku logika nie jest pokostem neoliberalizmu, ale raczej zestawem niespójnych logik moralnych, spojonym jedynie na powierzchni, ale wewnątrz wciąż rozproszonym.

EN

We apply Brown’s Foucauldian framework on neoliberalism to the COVID-19 crisis in the UK, and use qualitative content analysis to interpret the moral logics within 32 of Boris Johnson’s public statements on COVID-19. We present the content analysis in six parts. For the first four parts, we apply four elements of Brown’s framework: economization, governance, responsibilization, and sacrifice. Next, we explain two other moral logics-utilitarian and sympathetic. Johnson’s condensation of logics contains ideological connotations: neoliberal rationality serves the mass of people and the purpose of sympathy. Within Brown’s conceptual framework, the problem is not just the domination of the market, but the logic that grants the market legitimation as a human-centered logic. The adjustment we suggest is in recognizing the human-centered aspect as not a veneer for neoliberalism, but rather as a collection of disparate moral logics, combined with them smoothly on the surface, but messily underneath.

Keywords

EN

neoliberalism; morality; COVID-19; Boris Johnson

PL

Boris Johnson; COVID-19; neoliberalizm; moralność

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Praktyka Teoretyczna
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 167-192

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Jeremiah Morelock

• Boston College

• https://orcid.org/0000000265064940

author

Yonathan Listik

• University of Amsterdam

• https://orcid.org/0000000246849611

author

Mili Kalia

• Oxford City Council

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/prt2021.4.7

Biblioteka Nauki

15593694