In the Realm of Corona Normativities II - The Permanence of the Exception

Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann 2022

Even this book cannot deny a certain “fatigue” with the subject of the pandemic in which we live: No one dares to predict when we will wake up from the current state, one in which our whole lives revolve around the virus. Homo politicus seems to be moved by nothing other than rehearsing to keep on the lookout; homo juridicus poses as a crisis manager; homo economicus tries to adapt its models of rational utility maximization to the new challenges; homo aestheticus suffers deeply from the lack of imaginary surpluses that catapult us beyond ourselves, as we remain caught in the profanity of illustrative aesthetics; homo religiosus asks anew the question of meaning for the faithful; and homo protestus invokes the figure of “civil disobedience” and an understanding of freedom that no longer knows how to distinguish between the right to harm oneself and the clear prohibition of harming others! As for homo sociologicus, homo historicus, and homo philosophicus: What standpoints on the “corona world” do they have to offer? How do they reflect the validity of contradictory, permanently changing normative orders in times of the Covid-19 pandemic? Against this background, intellectuals, fellow citizens, friends, and colleagues of the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture” from all over the world have come together in this volume to mobilize their acumen and empathy to paint us a picture of the “permanence of the exception”.

A sample reading can be found here.

About the Editors:

Werner Gephart is a legal scholar, sociologist, artist, and Founding Director of the Käte
Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”.

Jure Leko is a researcher at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”.