The (re)construction of the social in times of pandemic and post-pandemic
On Tuesday, February 8, under the title “The (re)construction of the social in times of pandemic and post-pandemic. Critical contributions from Latin American and Caribbean social sciences”The Latin American Sociological Association (ALAS) presented the XXXIII Latin American Congress of Sociology to be held from August 14 to 19, 2022 in Mexico.
Academic authorities from the institutions involved (UNAM, UdG, UASLP, ENES-Mérida, ALAS, CLACSO) will participate with live transmission through the ALAS 2022 YouTube channel.
Dr. Jaime Ríos, President of ALAS
Dr. Karina Batthyány, Executive Secretary of CLACSO
Dr. Jaime Preciado, Coordinator of the Doctorate in Political Science at the University Center for Social Sciences and Humanities, UdG
Dr. Enrique Delgado, Director of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UASLP
Dr. César Guzmán, Professor at the National School of Higher Studies Mérida, UNAM
Dr. Efraín León, Coordinator of the PPEL at UNAM
Dr. Guadalupe Valencia, Coordinator of Humanities at UNAM
Dr. Carola García Calderón, Director of the FCPyS of the UNAM
Dr. Angélica Cuéllar, Vice President of ALAS and President of the XXXIII ALAS Congress Mexico 2022
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, a pandemic. Since then, we have been living through confusing times, marked by profound transformations and uncertain directions, reflecting a social mutation of such magnitude that it strongly supports the idea, put forward some years ago by philosophers, analysts, and social scientists, of a civilizational crisis. A key characteristic of COVID-19 is its transmission through direct contact, which is why social isolation was the most widely adopted public health measure by governments worldwide. The combination of a deadly virus, healthcare systems dismantled by neoliberal policies, ineffective governments, reactive societies, and widespread misinformation has resulted in a social cocktail that is now the subject of analysis in the social sciences.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the pandemic starkly exposed a precarious social reality on an unprecedented scale. It intensified existing discontent and, consequently, the need to find ways to transform that reality. As infection rates rose across the region, so did social discontent, fueled by social restrictions, increased unemployment, the unexpected shift to online education, the closure of public spaces, and numerous other government measures. Thus, social reality imposed a need to organize in a context where contact with others was experienced as a life-threatening risk. Despite this, and as the days, weeks, and months passed, social organizing took to the streets, and to date, the region has witnessed political crises, genuine popular uprisings, and unprecedented political scenarios.
This crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic places us in a paradoxical and polarizing scenario. In this context, sociology has served as input and has guided the perceptions and decision-making of governments, civil organizations, and social movements. The debate about reality has broadened, and concepts such as civilizational crisis, ecosocial collapse, intersectionality, neoliberalism, racism, domestic violence, public health, the State, economic model, and development programs, among others, have gained prominence.
Therefore, ALAS Mexico 2022 calls for reflection, debate, and knowledge production from a Latin American critical perspective and among professionals in sociology and the social sciences, to understand Latin American and Caribbean reality in a post-pandemic context. We propose to consider the pandemic(s) that accompany COVID-19: violence, racism, poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation, gender-based violence, and migration, as well as to visualize, imagine, and create new scenarios of resistance to capitalism, colonialism, and the structural violence that takes on new forms and is intertwined with pre-existing ones.
ALAS Mexico 2022 aims to highlight how academic discussion, especially in the social sciences, has expanded using technological tools and virtual spaces such as webinars, which are here to stay. New ways of maintaining social contact during the pandemic have presented both a challenge and an open field for education and the generation of global knowledge. Therefore, the XXXIII Latin American Congress ALAS Mexico 2022 proposes incorporating virtual dynamics to develop a hybrid model as a strategy for engagement.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic scenarios thus open the possibility of envisioning future horizons in which social relationships, the role of states, collective organizations, social movements, health, education, employment, gender equality, economies, natural resources, international relations, and geopolitics are redefined. We are navigating a complex scenario in which the (re)construction of the social will lead us to think from a collective perspective, placing life at the center.
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