All over the world as in Quebec, the COVID-19 crisis forced the government to declare a state of public health emergency. Under this exceptional regime, decision-making is extremely centralized and is more based on a top-down approach. The Government of Quebec has thus ordered public health measures of an exorbitant scope, applying to all citizens regardless of their particular living conditions. Certain measures, for example, curfews, have thus created or exacerbated social inequalities, particularly in terms of exposure to the risk posed by COVID-19, access to healthcare or educational services or the ability to comply with certain health instructions, adding a burden for populations that are often already vulnerable. To mitigate this phenomenon, bottom-up initiatives addressing social inequities have emerged in the margins of state action; other initiatives bringing stakeholders together to find solutions have been demanded by the state. Taking a few of those initiatives as examples (groups with food insecurity, victims of domestic violence, people experiencing homelessness), the authors propose an analysis of this governance born during the crisis to remedy the shortcomings of state law, paying particular attention to the norms developed by the participating actors to organize their actions.
This collection examines social inequalities brought to stark attention by the COVID-19 pandemic under three thematic strands: power and governance, gender, and marginalized communities. This project brings together a range of international scholars from multiple disciplines (law, sociology and politics) to showcase a diversity of perspectives on these themes. The unknowns around this virus and the scale of the epidemic make COVID-19 and its inequalities a timely subject. Understanding each of these issues from the perspective of multiple disciplines, with law at its centre, is the first step towards tackling them concretely and achieving social justice. The thematic coherence on social inequalities affecting vulnerable groups from international and multidisciplinary lenses is the book’s central feature.As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, stark social inequalities have increasingly been revealed and, in many cases, been exacerbated by the global health crisis.This book explores these inequalities, identifying three thematic strands: power and governance, gender, and marginalised communities. By examining these three themes in relation to the effects of the pandemic, the book uncovers how unequal the pandemic truly is. It brings together invaluable insights from a range of international scholars across multiple disciplines to critically analyse how these inequalities have played out in the context of COVID-19 as a first step towards achieving social justice.Stark social inequalities have been revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book explores these inequalities through three thematic strands: power and governance, gender, and marginalized communities. Through its examination, the book uncovers how unequal the pandemic truly is.