Functioning, failing, and fixing: logistical media and legitimacy in Macao during the pandemic

Abstract Critical logistics studies find that government legitimacy has faltered due to contemporary supply chain capitalism and its logistical mediation. They also find that the ongoing pandemic has extended the government’s logistical power. This paper attempts to analyze the Macao government’s application of logistical media, the device used for the coordination of people, goods, and information during the pandemic. Three types of performance will be discussed: 1. the urban infrastructure functioned to disseminate information and mobilize people, such as the typhoon alert system; 2. location-based functions of smart cards, which have failed to track data for epidemiological surveys; and 3. the interoperability of management systems between different local governments that needed to be fixed. All of these factors complicatedly affect the legitimacy of the government rather than merely enhancing or contesting it in an either/or approach.