Policy, Politics and Critical Human Security in a post-COVID World: A European Perspective

With the perception in Europe that COVID-19 is largely under control from a public health point of view, this paper will explore the social, political and policy challenges emerging from the uneven impact of the pandemic on people and places. Utilising a comparative, critical human security framework and drawing on secondary data the paper will begin by considering the progress of the crisis itself and policies pursued and will then draw out the social, economic and political challenges to human security and social protection in post-Covid, European societies. Comparative insights into interventions and outcomes will be drawn through consideration of varieties of political economy, and the multiscalar and supranational political, policy and institutional contexts in which these have occurred.