COVID-19 and crises of capitalism: special journal issue guest edited by SOAS Economics academics

18 May 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown multiple failures of contemporary capitalism into sharp relief. The public health crisis provoked by the pandemic rapidly translated into an economic and social crisis. This had immediate implications for everyday life and the processes of production, reproduction and consumption – both locally and globally. And, while the exploitative practices of global capitalism were well-known before the COVID-19 outbreak, the pandemic suddenly presents these through a magnifying glass dramatically amplifying them.

Sara Stevano, Tobias Franz, Yannis Dafermos and Elisa Van Waeyenberge, from SOAS Economics, have guest edited a double special issue in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies on COVID-19 and Crises of Capitalism: Global Responses and Intensifying Inequalities that explores the COVID-19 crisis through an interdisciplinary lens and a focus on various contexts and dimensions of the Global South. The special issue consists of an introduction piece and 16 contributions on the following themes: the origins of the crisis (world capitalist food system and health issues), the role of the state, implications for key commodities and commodity-producing countries, the world of work, and global finance.

Read COVID-19 and Crises of Capitalism: Global Responses and Intensifying Inequalities