Join the SSN for this hybrid seminar with Andrew Lakoff, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, who visiting us from the University of Southern California. Andrew will be discussing his new book "Planning for the Wrong Pandemic: Covid-19 and the Limits of Expert Knowledge" (Wiley, 2024) which offers a compelling analysis of expert knowledge and public emergency palnning. He will be in discussion with the SSN Environmental Challenges stream leader Timothy Neale after his talk.
Please register for either an in-person or YouTube Livestream ticket at registration.
Planning for the Wrong Pandemic: Covid-19 and the Limits of Expert Knowledge
The fractious and disorganized governmental response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States prompted many observers to ask why the country ‒ which had the knowledge, resources, and plans to deal with such an event ‒ was caught so unprepared when the crisis struck. In fact, this talk will argue, US officials had been planning for a pandemic for more than two decades, and many of these plans were implemented in the early stages of the pandemic. As authorities responded to the crisis, they relied on an already formulated set of concepts and tools that had been devised for managing a future emergency. These preexisting tools enabled officials to make sense of the event and to rapidly implement policies in response, but they also led to significant blind spots. What did these planning tools allow officials to see, and what did they hide from view? And, as we assess the failures in our response to the pandemic and attempt to prepare for “the next one,” to what extent should we take for granted the capacity of these tools to guide future interventions effectively?
Speaker Bio:
Andrew Lakoff is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Southern California, where he also directs the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life. His most recent book is Planning for the Wrong Pandemic (Polity, 2024) and his other books include (with Stephen Collier) The Government of Emergency: Vital Systems, Expertise, and the Politics of Security (Princeton, 2021), Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency (University of California, 2017), and Pharmaceutical Reason: Knowledge and Value in Global Psychiatry (Cambridge, 2005).
Discussant Bio:
Timothy Neale is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Deakin University and stream leader of Environmental Challenges in the Deakin Science and Society Network. An expert in environmental governance and emergency management his forthcoming book is titled How to Control Fire on a Burning Continent (Duke, 2026).
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