Right to health during COVID-19 pandemic: A sociological reading on global risk society and colonial sociability

The paper deepens the right to health in COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing its impact in terms of social inequalities. The first section introduces concepts drawn from the global risk society approach, pointing out some of its limitations for an effective analysis of the forms of social exclusion during the pandemic. The main statement is thatthe logic of inequalities emerged in COVID-19 pandemic can be interpreted moreeffectively in the light of postcolonial and decolonial sociology, with reference to theconcepts of coloniality of power (Quijano) and – specifically – colonial sociability(Santos). The way proposed is bringing into dialogue these concepts along with those of advanced marginality and territorial stigmatization (Wacquant). These approaches are useful in understanding some data on the spread of contagion and deaths due toCOVID-19 in the contexts of Brazil and the United States of America, contagion and deaths that have particularly critically affected specific territories of advanced marginality and exposed to stigmatization processes. Analyzing specific pathways for territorial de-stigmatization – the paper also discusses the emancipatory task of a sociological analysis of inequalities in COVID-19 pandemic era.