• Institution
    • Leitung
    • Gremien
      • Wissenschaftlicher Beirat
        • Gesamtliste seit 1981
      • Stiftungsrat
      • Mitgliederversammlung
    • Ansprechpartner
    • Das Kolleg
      • Historie
        • Geschichte der Institution
          • Kurze Geschichte des Kollegs
        • Geschichte der Häuser und Gärten
          • Hauptgebäude
            • Exkurs - Der Garten
          • Weiße Villa
          • Neubau
          • Villa Jaffé
          • Villa Walther
        • Geschichte des Signets
      • Finanzierung & Satzungen
        • Satzung der Wissenschaftsstiftung
        • Satzung des Wissenschaftskollegs
      • Förderer & Freundeskreis
    • Initiativen & Kooperationen
      • Working Futures
        • Interviews
          • Gabriel Abend
          • Ève Chiapello
          • Elena Esposito
          • Michel Lallement
          • Sophie Bernard
          • David Stark
          • Richard Swedberg
        • Publications
          • Shifting Categories
          • Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times
            • The digital transformation of work. COVID-19 as a taste of things to come?
            • Thinking the Global Rise of Forced Labor: Old, New, and Changing Forms of Labor Exploitation in Times of Crisis
            • Rearticulating globalization, solidarities, and work in Ethiopia
            • The future of shopping - Corona as a catalyst for the transformation of work
            • The End of the Pandemic of Productivism?
            • Covid and Looking for the Exit
            • Who or what is being tested in pandemic times?
            • The Crisis as Beginning of a New Relationship to the Professional World?
            • Controlled Avalanche – A Regulated Voluntary Exposure Approach for Addressing Covid-19
            • Caring about what we hold dear and the final purposes of work
            • How does the Corona crisis affect the future of work and our view of it?
            • "Useful", "indispensable", “essential”: Is the health crisis changing the categories with which we consider professional activities?
            • The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future
            • The Need for De-Integration in Pandemic Times
            • The COVID 19 crisis accelerates structural change in the world of work
            • How can we strengthen the contributory logic of work?
        • Events
        • Network
      • Blankensee-Colloquien
      • Anna Krüger Stiftung
      • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
      • Ukraine-Förderung
      • VUIAS
        • Bilder der Eröffnungsfeier
      • Elkana Fellowships
    • Bibliothek
      • Bestellen & Ausleihen
      • Recherche
        • Zeitschriften
        • Kataloge
        • Fachinformationsdienste
        • Archive
      • Bücher & Musik vor Ort
      • Fragen?
  • Fellows
    • Fellowfinder
    • Fellows 2024/2025
    • Permanent Fellows
      • Frühere Permanent Fellows
    • Alumni
      • Fellowclub
        • Verein
          • Geschichte
        • Mitgliedschaft
        • Newsletter
          • März 2025
            • Editorial
            • Architekturen des Überlebens: Ein Interview mit Natalia Romik (Elkana-Fellow 2024/2025)
            • „Definitionen sind keine letzten Wahrheiten“
            • Weitere Videos aus der Wikothek
            • Die School of Human Rights Association: Für eine gerechte und demokratische Wissenschaft in der Türkei
            • Wissenschaftsfreiheit im Kleinen
            • Save the Date: Jahrestreffen des Fellowclubs
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2024
            • Editorial
            • Mit essbaren Insekten die Welt ernähren
            • Schöner Leben
            • Weitere Videos aus der Wikothek
            • Gespräch mit einer linkshändigen Friseurin: die Soziologin Barbara Thériault (Fellow 2023/2024)
            • Teller, die Fragen aufwerfen: Interview mit Chef de cuisine Sonja Frühsammer
            • Runden um den Grunewaldsee: fünf Jahre Wicked Wiko Runners
            • Save the Date – Treffen des Fellowclubs 2024
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2023
            • Editorial
            • Geschichtslehrer des Volkes
            • Krieg und Frieden. Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Ukraine
            • Frostig, beschämt, befreit
            • Musik eines Geflüchteten
            • Grußwort des Vorsitzenden
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2023
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • März 2022
            • Editorial
            • Politik, Recht und Wissenschaft in Zeiten der Pandemie
            • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
            • Roni Taharlev: Der Vorbote von Corona
            • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin mit Maske
            • Grußwort des Vorsitzenden
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2022
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Mitgliedsbeiträge und Spenden
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Obituarium
          • Februar 2021
            • Editorial
            • Zwischen Eigenzeit und Interdisziplinarität
            • Sag's durch die Maske!
            • Was war und zu welchem Ende studiert man Trumpismus?
            • Als die Computer laufen lernten
            • Zum Abschied von Sonja Grund
            • Angelika Leuchter
            • Blog-Serie zur Wissenschaftsfreiheit
            • Save the dates – Fellowtreffen 2021 und 2022
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Obituarium
          • März 2020
            • Editorial
            • Verfassung als gewaltlose Revolution
            • Imre Kertész und die europäische Literatur der Gegenwart
            • Es sind die Verluste, welche die Polen umtreiben
            • Das Kolleg und der Osten – das New Europe College in Bukarest
            • Save the date - Fellowtreffen: Biodiversity: Conceptual Challenges in an Era of Rapid Change 11./12.Juni 2020
            • Neue Publikationen in der Fellowbibliothek
            • Preise
            • Mitgliedschaft im Fellowclub
            • Obituarium
          • March 2019
            • Editorial
            • Paintings for the Future
            • Landmark Papers Revisited
            • Working Futures
            • Society Benefits From Our Autonomy
            • Two Million Blossoms in a Jar
            • Save the Date - Meeting of the Fellows' Club: June 13-14, 2019
            • Lectures on Film
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Preise
            • Join the Fellows' Club
            • Obituaries
          • März 2018
            • Editorial
            • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
            • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
            • Return to Gdańsk
            • Sign the Gdansk Petition
            • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
            • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
            • (Almost) A Lifer
            • Late Checkout
            • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
            • Preise
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
          • March 2017
            • Editorial
            • Luca Giuliani: Facets of Stephen
            • Berliner Abend 2017
            • Michael Jennions: Walking Berlin
            • Nostalgia
            • Prizes
          • June 2016
            • Editorial
            • Daniel M. Weary: Three days at Wiko to imagine a new world
            • Katharina Wiedemann: Travelling Lights
            • William Marx: The Rising of Kaspar Hauser
            • Luc Steels: Grunewaldkirche, Bach, and Passions
            • Nostalgia
          • June 2015
            • Editorial
            • Adam S. Wilkins: Humanities and Natural Sciences
            • Rob Page: The Decline of the Humanities?
            • Alfons Söllner: From "Exilforschung" to "Emigrationsforschung"? A Journey in Memory.
            • Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman: Wiko Then and Now: 1991-1992 and 2014-2015
            • Daniel Schönpflug: Ins Grüne
          • December 2014
            • Editorial
            • Sebastian Conrad: Global History
            • Sahotra Sarkar, Chris Margules: Biodiversity group at the Kolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: On Uwe Pörksen: Camelot im Grunewald. Szenen aus dem intellektuellen Leben der achtziger Jahre
            • Meredith Reiches: "Literary studies and biology: The Shakespeare-Workshops at the Kolleg 2012 and 2013"
            • Simon Teuscher: Workshop: Perspectives on Actors in Social History
            • Gebhard Kirchgässner: Workshop “The Economic Model of Human Behaviour”
            • Gerald Wilkinson: Workshop “Mind the Gap: Closing the Gulf between Genomic and Phenotypic Studies of Sexual Selection”
            • Sonja Grund: News from the Fellows’ Club
          • May 2014
            • Editorial
            • Peter Reill: From the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to Wiko: Reflections on a Return after Twenty-Seven Years
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus:Why artists are needed at research institutions
            • Martin Loughlin: Constitutions beyond the Nation-State
            • Franco Moretti: Invisible objects
            • Stefanie Rentsch: The Forum Transregionale Studien – its Mission and History
          • November 2013
            • Editorial
            • Jim Hunt: Ten Years in the Rearview Mirror
            • Thorsten Wilhelmy: My First Year at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Giovanni Frazzetto: The College for Life Sciences at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: The Fellow Forum for Former Fellows
      • Fellow Forum
  • Veranstaltungen
    • Veranstaltungskalender
    • Workshops
    • Veranstaltungsreihen
      • Gesprächskonzerte
      • Zur Zeit
      • Observatorium
      • Ernst Mayr Lecture
    • Three Cultures Forum
  • Wikothek
    • Wiko Shorts
    • Lectures & Keynotes
    • Features
    • Köpfe und Ideen
    • Arbeitsvorhaben
    • Jahrbuch
    • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
  • Fellow werden
    • Individuelle Fellowships
    • College for Life Sciences
      • Program
      • Application
      • Fellows
      • Scientific Committee
      • FAQ
    • Leben und Arbeiten
      • Finanzielle Regelungen
      • Wohnungen
      • Wissenschaftliches Leben
      • Dienste für Fellows
      • Dienste für Partnerinnen/Partner und Familien
image/svg+xml
DeutschEnglish
 Login


MENU

  • Institution
  • Fellows
  • Veranstaltungen
  • Wikothek
  • Fellow werden

  • Leitung
  • Gremien
  • Ansprechpartner
  • Das Kolleg
  • Initiativen & Kooperationen
  • Bibliothek

  • Working Futures
  • Blankensee-Colloquien
  • Anna Krüger Stiftung
  • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
  • Ukraine-Förderung
  • VUIAS
  • Elkana Fellowships

Covid and Looking for the Exit

Bruce Kogut

Covid-19 came as a shock to almost everyone, except for the many elites responsible for the task of preparation. Who should be surprised that pandemics are a threat? Didn’t Hollywood even make a movie Contagion in 2011 that discussed the R0 parameter that Chancellor Merkel explains to the German public? Elites knew, yet we were not prepared. Isn’t that astounding? What’s the point of having elites if they don’t do much?

Many countries, the US included, engaged in planning for such catastrophes in simulated response times to hypothetical viral and bacterial crises. Hospitals ran crisis management exercises following the SARs epidemic. Corporations engaged in such exercises, and they were stunned to find, they forgot they were prepared. Facebook discovered hundreds of thousands of facial masks re-discovered in inventory. Corporate leaders met with military leaders, politicians held open inquiries, medical institutions and insurance companies knew the risks.

Some argue that the world will change as a consequence. We ask will Covid have a structural impact, or an accelerating impact on forces already bearing upon economies and societies? It is a good question and it is too early to know. Covid did us at least one positive service and pulled the curtains from the windows. Now that we see the benefits of pervasive, we have to decide what to do if preparation means the permanent pervasive State.

What do I think? Covid teaches us the fundamental value of humanity, sociality, the longing for proximity. We are social beings, living in purgatory, saved and damned by Zoom. We live in isolated rooms but with connectivity, Sartre’s Huis Clos modernized, always on-line and still no exit.

Here is a better alternative: we will live in a future world inhabited by people and algorithmic machines that know our names. Work places will change, maybe now only faster. Cities will change, the cost of social distancing will flip the scale economies negative, and people move to smaller towns. Democracy will be challenged by technology, it will be enabled by technology. This week, the US public for the first time listened in real time to the arguments held at the Supreme Court. Cultural institutions opened their archives.

Change is before us, as it has always been in history. We’ve come this far. Academics should prepare to engage in common humanity, humility, and better science. While the past months meant that we came to grieve, we also woke up. We looked for the exit.

Meanwhile, I learned to make sushi, among other things…


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bruce Kogut is Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the School of Business, at Columbia, where he also co-leads the working group in Computational Social Science. He is a member of the “Working Futures” Network at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

More articles of the series "Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times" can be found here.

 

  • Interviews
  • Publications
    • Shifting Categories
    • Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times
      • The digital transformation of work. COVID-19 as a taste of things to come?
      • Thinking the Global Rise of Forced Labor: Old, New, and Changing Forms of Labor Exploitation in Times of Crisis
      • Rearticulating globalization, solidarities, and work in Ethiopia
      • The future of shopping - Corona as a catalyst for the transformation of work
      • The End of the Pandemic of Productivism?
      • Covid and Looking for the Exit
      • Who or what is being tested in pandemic times?
      • The Crisis as Beginning of a New Relationship to the Professional World?
      • Controlled Avalanche – A Regulated Voluntary Exposure Approach for Addressing Covid-19
      • Caring about what we hold dear and the final purposes of work
      • How does the Corona crisis affect the future of work and our view of it?
      • "Useful", "indispensable", “essential”: Is the health crisis changing the categories with which we consider professional activities?
      • The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future
      • The Need for De-Integration in Pandemic Times
      • The COVID 19 crisis accelerates structural change in the world of work
      • How can we strengthen the contributory logic of work?
  • Events
  • Network

Institute for Advanced Study

  • Pressenotizen
  • Ansprechpartner
  • Kontakt
  • Vakanzen
  • Impressum
  • Datenschutz
  • Sitemap

Institution

  • Leitung
  • Gremien
  • Ansprechpartner
  • Das Kolleg
  • Initiativen & Kooperationen
  • Bibliothek

Fellows

  • Fellowfinder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

Veranstaltungen

  • Veranstaltungskalender
  • Workshops
  • Veranstaltungsreihen
  • Three Cultures Forum

Wikothek

  • Wiko Shorts
  • Lectures & Keynotes
  • Features
  • Köpfe und Ideen
  • Arbeitsvorhaben
  • Jahrbuch
  • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte

Fellow werden

  • Individuelle Fellowships
  • College for Life Sciences
  • Leben und Arbeiten