“We’re Seeing the Breakdown of Collective Responsibility”
Western states’ response to the coronavirus pandemic has been far inferior to East Asian countries’ — illustrating their inability to cope with major crises. China scholar Kenneth Pomeranz spoke to Jacobin about the decline of collective responsibility and the dangers of future pandemics.
A woman during the anti-mask and anti-vaccine “Freedom Rally” in New York City on March 20, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Kenneth Pomeranz is University Professor of History at the University of Chicago, specializing in the social, economic, and environmental history of modern China and the world. His classic work, The Great Divergence, helped to reshape the debate on capitalist development by examining comparative histories of China and Europe in the making of the modern world economy. He is currently working on a book titled Why Is China So Big?
In this interview for Jacobin, Pomeranz discusses the worsening of social and economic inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. He offers possibilities for confronting the challenges of the age of pandemics, but also provides a warning about the failure of states to make political choices to improve the global condition.
Arjun Chaturvedi
I want to begin by asking if you think there are links between climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic?
Kenneth Pomeranz
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