Capitalism and the politics of disease: then and now

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article crystallises the links between capitalism and the politics of diseases. Capitalism is an economic and political system that depends not only on the production of capital, but also on the production of social relations. Just as it produces commodities, it reproduces and distributes new social relations by designating rivalries and alliances. Pandemic outbreaks are ideal conditions for capitalism to reinforce or reformulate these categories and put them into practice by naming and metaphorising diseases accordingly. The reconfiguration of capitalism brings about a shift in the typologies of enemies, the metaphors used to describe diseases, and the way diseases are confronted. This article aims to trace the shift in the politics of disease in two film productions dealing with pandemic outbreaks, Panic in the Streets (1950) and Covert One: The Hades Factor (2006), and in the mainstream media coverage of Covid-19 images in light of capitalism’s evolution from the Keynesian model to its contemporary understanding.