Coronavirus has become a global crisis; official figures tell us that more than 3 million people have already been infected (some estimates put the number ten times higher), and more than a quarter of a million have died. In the bid to contain the virus’s spread and reduce the strain on hospitals, over 3 billion people are on lockdown. In this context of crisis, many analysts have pointed to errors in initial risk assessments, against a backdrop of structural unpreparedness and budget cuts. Government pronouncements regarding masks — initially considered ineffective, before they were deemed essential — speaks to the contradictions and fluctuations in public discourse on the pandemic.

Yet the focus on government action — as symbolized by the daily ritual of televised press conferences offering updates on the situation — should not obscure the initiatives and the work that is being done by other social actors. As shown in the weekly tracking from French statistics agency DARES, the country’s labor market has been deeply affected by the state-imposed lockdown: since the second week of April, 11 million workers in France have filed unemployment claims, mainly among small and middle-size businesses (83  percent in firms with under 250 workers).