PGC2020
Paul Stenner: The Social Psychology of Global Crisis Through the Lens of Liminal Experience: Stuck in the Middle with Coronavirus
This paper theorises the Covid-19 Pandemic through the lens of liminality as part of a process social psychology which foregrounds experience and temporality. The pandemic has provoked liminal experiences on multiple levels from the micro-local to the global. Compared to the interpretative frame provided by the concept of crisis - which stresses separation - the concept of liminality helps draw attention, not just to the possibility of progressive change following the pandemic, but to the importance of going through experiences of transition as a pre-condition for such change. The paper includes an analysis of one of UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s recent speeches and proposes that the response he has led is predicated upon an elimination of liminality rather than engagement with it. It is suggested that this stance may be an important factor in creating the conditions under which care homes have proved to be liminal hotspots of intensive Covid-19 infection.
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