Dominant and Counteracting Narratives of “Crisis” in COVID Times

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines dominant COVID-19 narratives within mainstream UK government discourse, as well as counteracting narrative responses to COVID-19, during the first six months of the pandemic in 2020. The chapter also analyses counteracting narratives within the author’s research with people living with HIV within the new COVID-19 context. The chapter starts by considering the possibilities offered by a narrative approach that focuses on dominant and counteracting narrative forms. It describes “crisis” narratives generated in political discourse around pandemic spread and, later, economic recession, as well as counteracting narratives articulated in media and public discourse. It concludes by sketching out potential theoretical understandings of the power and effects of counteracting narratives of COVID-19, drawing on Hage’s concept of alter-politics within the contemporary context of interlinked emergencies of health, climate, and inequalities.