Between Solidarity and De-solidarisation: COVID-19 as a Crisis of Mobility

COVID-19 manifested itself as a mobility crisis, raising questions on ‘free movement’ in a world where globalisation had hitherto seemingly rendered national borders obsolete. Challenging framings of COVID-19 as an inexplicable Other affecting members of societies equally, this chapter conceptualises the pandemic crisis as a ‘social process’ encompassing classed, racialised, and gendered dimensions that led to a highly unequal distribution of the effects of COVID-19 (im)mobility. The coronavirus pandemic did not bring forth but merely exacerbated a pre-existing crisis of political legitimacy. The role of both progressive as well as COVID-19-negationist social movements is also examined. Instead of classifying social mobilisation along a ‘state vs. anti-state’ binary, the chapter argues that movements should instead be defined according to whether they promoted solidarity or desolidarisation.