Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUROSICK (Europe, Covid Politics and the (Un)Expected Surge of Nationalistic Narratives)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-08-31
More than being turning points in history, crises are moments of acceleration of processes that are already in place. The Covid-19 pandemic, as one such crisis, triggered and exacerbated conversations about who belongs and who does not within different European nation states, whose lives should be protected, to the detriment of whom and to what cost. In the face of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the unity of the European Union, at least at the beginning of the crisis, started to crumble. Nation states reappeared as the main actors, and nationalistic responses spread in Europe. European countries closed their borders to other nationalities and government after government resorted to war metaphors, in some cases even granting the military a visible role in the management and communication of the crisis. Mobility restrictions became a powerful tool for discrimination when their primary target was nationals of particular countries, regardless of their presence in the contaminated areas. But what can we learn from the handling of Covid-9 crisis to better manage future crisis? These initial policies and measures, and the later vaccine-related management of the pandemic, showed the role nationalism plays in the context of public health responses to emergencies.
My project examines public authorities’ discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic in three European countries (Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland) at different points in time: before the outbreak in Europe, at the time of the outbreak, and the spring of 2021 following the discovery and implementation of vaccination programmes in Europe. The main research question asks how the pandemic crisis reconfigured pre-existing tensions and social divisions related to national identity within European debates. The analysis is carried out by focusing on the discursive conceptualisations of the crisis and the framing of the problem as a foreign virus that was then answered with border closures in practice.
The first corpus of data, governmental policies and emergency measures were downloaded from the public health authorities’ websites. For the second corpus of data related to the communication of those measures by the authorities to the public, tweets from main political figures and ministries of health in the three selected countries were downloaded, using historical search under Twitter timelines endpoint available via a Basic API Subscription. Both policy documentation and tweets were then searched using relevant keywords. The keywords include Covid-19, pandemic, coronavirus, outbreak, lockdown, social /physical distancing, curfew, quarantine, border closures, etc. The data collection focused on three decisive periods during the pandemic in terms of narrative construction. The first period covers February 2020 when COVID-19 was first reported in China before its outbreak in Europe. Inclusion of this period enables consideration of the European (media)’s narratives about the Chinese government’s handling of the outbreak when the sickness still seemed remote and distant from the European territory. The second period, which extends from 1 March 2020 to 31 May 2020, covers the initial outbreak of the contagion in Europe up to the end of the lockdown. The third period extends from 1 December 2020 to April 2021, coinciding with the fabrication of the vaccines and the implementation of the vaccination programmes in Europe. New discussions about border closure/opening and the forms of acceptable mobility within and outside of Europe emerged during this phase, as well as the initial debates around ‘vaccine nationalism’ to borrow the expression of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO. I performed the analysis using critical discourse analysis (CDA), drawing on my past qualitative analytical competencies. CDA is an interdisciplinary approach used to study oral and textual discourses. It views language as a social practice and a relevant object of study for identifying and investigating different power relations that are (re)produced and/or reinforced through language use.
The first corpus of data, governmental policies and emergency measures were downloaded from the public health authorities’ websites. For the second corpus of data related to the communication of those measures by the authorities to the public, tweets from main political figures and ministries of health in the three selected countries were downloaded, using historical search under Twitter timelines endpoint available via a Basic API Subscription. Both policy documentation and tweets were then searched using relevant keywords. The keywords include Covid-19, pandemic, coronavirus, outbreak, lockdown, social /physical distancing, curfew, quarantine, border closures, etc. The data collection focused on three decisive periods during the pandemic in terms of narrative construction. The first period covers February 2020 when COVID-19 was first reported in China before its outbreak in Europe. Inclusion of this period enables consideration of the European (media)’s narratives about the Chinese government’s handling of the outbreak when the sickness still seemed remote and distant from the European territory. The second period, which extends from 1 March 2020 to 31 May 2020, covers the initial outbreak of the contagion in Europe up to the end of the lockdown. The third period extends from 1 December 2020 to April 2021, coinciding with the fabrication of the vaccines and the implementation of the vaccination programmes in Europe. New discussions about border closure/opening and the forms of acceptable mobility within and outside of Europe emerged during this phase, as well as the initial debates around ‘vaccine nationalism’ to borrow the expression of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO. I performed the analysis using critical discourse analysis (CDA), drawing on my past qualitative analytical competencies. CDA is an interdisciplinary approach used to study oral and textual discourses. It views language as a social practice and a relevant object of study for identifying and investigating different power relations that are (re)produced and/or reinforced through language use.
By conjoining the sociology of migration and nationalism with research on historical disasters one can draw parallels between the organic metaphor of a virus threatening or invading the body, and similar organic metaphors within migration debates that depict foreigners as a danger that threatens the social body of a nation.
While it is more common to hear about the unethical or immoral basis of exclusionary measures and/or border closures against racialised immigrants, the experience of the pandemic showed that these are not only matters of concern for racialised migrants or ethnic minorities. They are a threat for the European nationals themselves as well.
Looking back at the inefficiency of exclusionary measures such as border closures against non-nationals from other European countries, regardless of their presence in the contaminated areas, hold important lessons to be learnt. These initial policies and measures, and the later vaccine-related management of the pandemic, showcased the price of non-solidarity that nationalism promotes not only between Europe and non-Europeans but also among the European countries themselves. For example, in Switzerland patients coming from France and Italy were not welcome to the Swiss hospitals at the beginning, that according to Sommaruga the Swiss president at the time, should give priority to Swiss Citizens. Even though ironically the majority of health care professionals in Swiss hospitals are from the neighbouring countries, from France and Itay precisely.
In addition to the above theoretical contribution to the state-of-the-art, EUROSICK’s design will contribute to expanding the methodological approach that prevails within media studies and textual content analyses, entailing frequent quantitative analyses of keywords, and especially tweet content. It will do so by introducing a qualitative and comprehensive analysis of power relations conveyed through metaphors, narratives and vocabularies used to justify measures taken by public authorities and diffused to the public via key media channels.
While it is more common to hear about the unethical or immoral basis of exclusionary measures and/or border closures against racialised immigrants, the experience of the pandemic showed that these are not only matters of concern for racialised migrants or ethnic minorities. They are a threat for the European nationals themselves as well.
Looking back at the inefficiency of exclusionary measures such as border closures against non-nationals from other European countries, regardless of their presence in the contaminated areas, hold important lessons to be learnt. These initial policies and measures, and the later vaccine-related management of the pandemic, showcased the price of non-solidarity that nationalism promotes not only between Europe and non-Europeans but also among the European countries themselves. For example, in Switzerland patients coming from France and Italy were not welcome to the Swiss hospitals at the beginning, that according to Sommaruga the Swiss president at the time, should give priority to Swiss Citizens. Even though ironically the majority of health care professionals in Swiss hospitals are from the neighbouring countries, from France and Itay precisely.
In addition to the above theoretical contribution to the state-of-the-art, EUROSICK’s design will contribute to expanding the methodological approach that prevails within media studies and textual content analyses, entailing frequent quantitative analyses of keywords, and especially tweet content. It will do so by introducing a qualitative and comprehensive analysis of power relations conveyed through metaphors, narratives and vocabularies used to justify measures taken by public authorities and diffused to the public via key media channels.