Towards a relational ethics in pandemic times and beyond: Limited accountability, collective performativity and new subjectivity

Abstract

It is often said that desperate times call for desperate measures. Yet, in the contemporary pandemic crisis, desperate organizational measures seem all but present. Instead, for most of us it is 'business as usual' while we are at the same time required to take care of our kids. The situation makes us highly uncomfortable and overwhelms many of us with feelings of stress - when trying to keep on going with the flow - or feelings of guilt - when just not being able to juggle all the different things. In this short piece, I draw on a personal vignette to first theorize how the pandemic crisis leverages the constitution of a masculine subjectivity and, so doing, further increases the ontological struggle in the constitution of a female subjectivity under neoliberal governance. In a second instance, I turn to an email sent by my PhD supervisor to illustrate how a relational ethics, recognizing the openness and generosity in the relation, and collective performativity can lower the ethical burden we face. I conclude by arguing that such an alternative script and the subjectivity fostered through it is urgently needed, not only today in pandemic times, but also in times beyond.