A COVID charter, a better world / Toby Miller.
"We stand at an epic moment in history, akin to the transformations brought about by plague, slavery, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, war, decolonization, revolution, emancipation, human and civil rights, feminism, and climate change. The current pandemic brings into sharp relief the fault lines of inequality that divide the world both between and within sovereign states, compelling near universal fear and suffering. COVID-19 is a limit case, an emergency of cosmic proportions that can alert us to the limitations and failings of the current world, specifically in the elemental field of health. How should we reconstruct our societies, environments, cultures, and economies in the anticipated wake of COVID-19 - a world 'after' it? To find an answer, we need to examine the dominant discourse of public policy, healthcare in particular. We need a COVID Charter. This book, written by eminent scholar Toby Miller, focuses on the case studies of the US, Britain, Mexico, and Colombia, on the corporate, scientific, and governmental decision making and the disadvantaged and vulnerable communities in each place, to understand how each country is grappling with the pandemic, but in the background the book also pays heed to what has happened in Asia, Africa, and other parts of Europe, as well as the balance of geopolitical power. Miller intends to call for an end to neoliberalism, specifically market-based health care and a reallocation of resources away from pharmaceutical corporations and insurance companies and toward health as a universal public good. The crisis presented by Covid-19 is taken as a further indictment of neoliberalism as a politically and socially bankrupt form of reasoning. The chapters build up to the COVID Charter and how it can be argued for and implemented. The charter draws on the histories of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the UN Charter, the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights, the ASEAN Charter, and the American Convention on Human Rights and the Earth Charter to emphasize the expansion and deepening of human rights as part of broader action against neoliberalism"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781978827455
- Physical Description: v, 163 pages cm
- Publisher: New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2021]
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | COVID-19 (Disease) > Political aspects. COVID-19 (Disease) > Social aspects. COVID-19 (Disease) > Government policy. Public health > International cooperation. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Evergreen Indiana.
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- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jennings Co PL - North Vernon | 362.1962 MIL (Text) | 30653001445154 | Adult Non-Fiction | Available | - |
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- Chicago Distribution CenterUsing the examples of how the U.S., Britain, Mexico, and Colombia have responded to the COVID-19 crisis, Toby Miller investigates corporate, scientific, and governmental decision-making and their effects on disadvantaged local communities. He proposes a COVID charter calling for a new world, placing human lives above corporate profits.
- Chicago Distribution CenterWith unprecedented speed, scientists have raced to develop vaccines to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control and restore a sense of normalcy to our lives. Despite the havoc and disruption the pandemic has caused, itâs exposed exactly why we should not return to life as we once knew it. Our current profit-driven healthcare systems have exacerbated global inequality and endangered public health, and we must take this opportunity to construct a new social order that understands public health as a basic human right. Â
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A COVID Charter, A Better World outlines the steps needed to reform public policies and fix the structural vulnerabilities that the current pandemic has made so painfully clear. Leading scholar Toby Miller argues that we must resist neoliberalismâs tendency to view health in terms of individual choices and market-driven solutions, because that fails to preserve human rights. He addresses the imbalance of geopolitical power to explain how we arrived at this point and shows that the pandemic is more than just a virusâitâs a social disease. By examining how the U.S., Britain, Mexico, and Colombia have responded to the COVID-19 crisis, Miller investigates corporate, scientific, and governmental decision-making and the effects those decisions have had on disadvantaged local communities. Drawing from human rights charters ratified by various international organizations, he then proposes a COVID charter, calling for a new world that places human lives above corporate profits.