Towards a sociology of emergency. Epidemics, biorisks, and the society of the Coronavirus

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Swen Seebach
CEU Universities / University Abat Oliba CEU
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7434-7937
Ana Beriain Bañares
CEU Universities / University Abat Oliba CEU
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8025-4921

Over the last decade, the social agenda has been shaped by a continuous chain of potentially forthcoming future emergencies. Imagined, projected, and expected emergencies and crises have affected political and scientific agendas and redefined the pre-planning for risks at a local, national, and global level. Whilst most of these emergencies took place largely on an imaginary stage and never materialised – at least not with significant effects on global society – the COVID-19 pandemic finally made real the imaginary that had been expected and projected for over a decade. This article claims that within the context of an emergency in the making and the consequent social, economic, political, and material crises, sociology and social analysis need to assume new responsibilities by providing answers and perspective to those social developments that are direct and indirect results of the social and material conditions of a society of emergency. In a world in which the reality of emergencies has started to outrun the prevention of risks, a sociology of emergency is not only a useful but a necessary step in the development of social theory. We suggest that a redefinition of some of those concepts and ideas that marked the sociological agenda of risk society becomes unavoidable. We argue also that reconnection with those issues that had been discarded from the conceptual framework of a society of risk has become absolutely necessary.

Keywords
risk, emergency, imaginaries, future, COVID-19, pandemic

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How to Cite
Seebach, Swen; and Beriain Bañares, Ana. “Towards a sociology of emergency. Epidemics, biorisks, and the society of the Coronavirus”. Digithum, no. 28, pp. 1-7, doi:10.7238/d.v0i28.400351.
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(c) Swen Seebach, Ana Beriain Bañares, 2022


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Author Biographies

Swen Seebach, CEU Universities / University Abat Oliba CEU

Vice-rector of Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance at Abat Oliba CEU University. He is a Senior Lecturer at Abat Oliba CEU University in the Department of Communication where he teaches sociology and media theory. Seebach studied Political Sciences at the University of Leipzig and achieved his Diploma (BA+MA) in 2008. In 2010, he started his PhD thesis, which analyses the role of love relationships in late modern society, by the means of ideas from philosophy, sociology, anthropology, information and knowledge technology studies. In 2013, he finished his PhD thesis, with special honors and was awarded a prize for best PhD thesis of the year 2013 by the UOC. A monograph (Love and Society) resulting from his PhD got published by Routledge in 2017. 

He has participated in wide amount of national and international research projects (I+D and European Projects). In 2015, Seebach obtains the prestigious postdoctoral scholarship Juan de la Cierva formación, which allows him to engage with the field of bio-risks and bio-emergencies from a social science perspective. During his time at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Seebach studies the effect of scenario planning for the treatment of future social risks and emergencies and has engaged in empirical research related to epidemics. Since then, he has published various papers on the topic (2 publications Q1 Scimago). Currently, he is Principal Investigator (IP) in a small competitive research project on COVID19, financed by the CEU Group and the Santander Bank. 

Seebach is an internationally well-connected researcher. He is a member of the European Sociology Association RN Sociology of Emotions and the Love Research Network. He is reviewer for various international journals: Routledge Books, Digithum, Emotions and Society, Athenea, Artnodes. He has been invited speaker to sociological conferences and guest lecturer at the university of Pisa. Furthermore, Seebach is co-founder of the International Simmelian Association for Relational Creation and Analysis, an international Simmel network, uniting researchers from more than 10 countries. 

He is accredited as Lecturer and Advanced Researcher (AQU) and has an open six-year research track (in both AQU and ANECA).

Ana Beriain Bañares, CEU Universities / University Abat Oliba CEU

Associate professor at UAO CEU. She holds a PhD in Communication (Universitat Ramon Llull). She obtained a degree in Information Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and developed her career in market research and multinational companies (CIAC, Institute DYM and Millward Brown-Kantar) as Quantitative Research Director from 1983 to 2004. 

She is a teacher and researcher at the Communication, Education and Humanities Faculty at Universitat Abat Oliba CEU. From 2003, she has been teaching market research and research in Social Sciences in various degrees and masters. She is also the coordinator of the Doctoral Programme of Social Communication at the International School of Doctoral Studies CEINDO. She has extensive research experience and has participated in various competitive research projects. She is also a member of Insights Analytics. 

In 2012, she received the Prat Gaballi National Research Award. She is accredited as Associate Professor by ANECA and has two open six-year research track (in both AQU and ANECA). 

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