Werner Gephart (Hrsg): In the Realm of Corona Normativities. A Momentary Snapshot of a Dynamic Discourse

Frankfurt am am Main: Klostermann 2020

Corona Normativities provides a series of snapshots of the pandemic experience. As this phenomenon is global in nature, the contributors come from all over the world. Fellows, both past and present, and researchers from various disciplines, are associated with the Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture”. They share the conviction that the normative dimension of social life plays a special role in the pandemic experience: just as in archaic societies the observance of rules of purity were seen as a means of attaining salvation, the observance of hygiene rules has become the decisive means of healing the world from the evil of Covid-19. The constitution of this normative regimen and this belief in regulation in a state of emergency is of specific interest as a particular type of a pandemic validity culture. In what way does it reflect the gruelling normative rhythm that oscillates between freezing social life and opening it up but without relief and with a persisting basic mood of insecurity? Scrutiny of the crisis and its normative dynamics are key to better understanding the pandemic.
The contributors to this timely volume desist from the nonsensical disputation of medical expertise, and emphasize the inherent dynamics of moral, legal, ethical, convention-like rules, as well as mores and manners, in the weird and uncanny realm of the normative.

About the Editor

Werner Gephart is a legal scholar, sociologist, and artist. He is Founding Director of the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”, editor of the volume „Recht“ of the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (MWG I/22-3), editor of Brill Research Perspectives in “Art and Law”, and président d’honneur of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). His cultural sociology of law is based on studies and publications in the spheres of religion, art, culture and the world of media.