Diálogos acadêmicos em tempos de pandemia: reflexões sob os olhares das Ciências Sociais

Abstract

The year 2020 has gone down in human history as one of the most impactful of all time: the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, a drama that goes far beyond the disease and the virus itself. Caused by the Coronavirus, it has taken the lives of more than 2,000,000 people worldwide, and in Brazil alone, more than 220,000 deaths have been recorded, according to data recorded up until the time this book was written.

Undoubtedly, the circumstances directly related to Covid-19 have given rise to a series of demands on the part of society, highlighting the role of the State in dealing with the health and social crisis, and drawing attention to the responses to the pandemic situation and the treatment given to it. In this context, there are several dimensions in which the discussion of this role becomes of fundamental importance. Economy, education, social protection policies, the press, human rights, strategies in the scope of international politics and democracy itself present new demands, questions and reflections on the part of a variety of researchers around the world.

As a contribution to these reflections, which are so important at such a delicate moment in society, we have organized this book, entitled Academic Dialogues in Times of Pandemic: State and Society in the Covid-19 Crisis, whose idea originated from the Minicourse "Academic Dialogues in Times of Pandemic", an initiative of the organizers of the work, supported by the Coordination of the Full Degree Course in Social Sciences at the State University of Piauí and by the Center for Research and Extension in Institutions, Culture and Sociabilities (NICS/UESPI). It is, therefore, an academic production resulting from contributions from professors and researchers from diverse areas of knowledge, not only from UESPI, but also from other institutions nationwide, which, from a collaborative perspective, help in the understanding of a series of issues of enormous relevance in the pandemic context.