“We are living through a civilizational crisis”

The COVID-19 pandemic was not an obstacle for Karina Batthyány, Executive Secretary of CLACSO, to continue with her Dialogues section, this time –virtually– with the Costa Rican sociologist, university professor and feminist Montserrat Sagot.

“There is no possibility of social confinement and staying at home without an open social and economic redistribution policy. In other words, nobody can stay home without a minimum basic income,” Montserrat Sagot stated.

This pandemic “is impacting all countries, but with some particularities in Latin America and the Caribbean,” stated Karina Batthyány. She elaborated: “I am somewhat concerned about the impact of this health emergency on our countries in many areas,” highlighting “the differential impact this is having from a gender perspective, particularly on the situation of women in what has been called confinement, stay-at-home orders, or—a term I really dislike—social isolation.”

Montserrat Sagot, in turn, defined it as follows: “The concept of a health crisis probably falls far short. It seems to me that we are living through a civilizational crisis that will have implications and impacts in all areas of human life, that will likely build a new society whose form is not yet clearly defined, that will dismantle a series of elements and structures that we took for granted, that will dismantle normality, or what we knew as normality. It will probably change—and is already changing—gender relations. It will probably also have an impact on the way states are organized. It will have an impact on public health systems. It is having a monstrous impact on economic relations, on labor relations.”

[+] Thinking about the pandemic