South African Review of Sociology: putting the pandemic in perspective: special issue

Abstract

It has now been over five years since the COVID-19 pandemic substantially altered the world. In March 2020, as South Africa, alongside many other countries, went into lockdown, society was profoundly disrupted. At the time, we did not know how this disruption might shape and reshape society. Although at the beginning many governments framed the pandemic as primarily a medical issue, sociologists and the wider social science community understood that the responses to the pandemic were inherently social. Social science teams across South Africa mobilized their expertise in response to the unfolding dynamics of the pandemic. This special issue profiles one such initiative.