A major open-access book on the role of science during the Covid-19 pandemic has just been published, co-authored by Professor Alex Broadbent from our Department of Philosophy and Institute for Medical Humanities.
Power, Knowledge, and Covid-19: The Making of a Scientific Orthodoxy explores how particular scientific viewpoints became ‘the science’ during the pandemic, acquired exceptional authority, and were used to justify unprecedented state actions.
Through case studies from around the world, the book examines lockdowns, masks, vaccines, modelling, dissent, and the politics of ‘following the science’.
It shows how certain scientific perspectives were privileged, shaping public policy and social behaviour, while alternative or more nuanced perspectives were often marginalised. It also explores how this affects trust in science now.
Bringing new perspectives to public health
Power, Knowledge and Covid-19 illustrates the growing influence of the critical medical humanities on public health and brings philosophical methods and conceptual analysis to bear on urgent real-world questions.
Professor Alex Broadbent, Professor of Philosophy of Science in our Department of Philosophy and Institute for Medical Humanities said: “This book examines how a dominant scientific narrative was constructed and defended during the pandemic.
“It offers a philosophical framework – scientific orthodoxy – for understanding how that happened and how we might avoid repeating it in future emergencies where scientific advice is central to public policy.”
Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean of Durham’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, said: “This is an important and timely book that shows how humanities research can illuminate some of the most difficult questions raised by recent public life.
“By bringing philosophy into productive dialogue with epidemiology, medicine, public health and policy, it exemplifies Durham’s strength in transformative and medical humanities.”
Building partnerships with the Global South
Alex is the Director of our Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health, a joint venture between our Institute for Medical Humanities and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg.
The Centre brings philosophical analysis to questions in epidemiology, medicine and public health, and treats Global South perspectives as essential sources of insight in this field.
Power, Knowledge and Covid-19: The Making of a Scientific Orthodoxy by Alex Broadbent and Pieter Streicher from the University of Johannesburg is published by Routledge.
It is available to download freely thanks to funding awarded by Wellcome to Durham for the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.
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