Social Sciences and Inequalities in the New Post-COVID-19 “Normal”

Maria José  Sá; Sandro  Serpa

doi:10.36941/jesr-2022-0001

Authors

Maria José Sá CIPES -Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, 4450-227 Matosinhos, Portugal
Sandro Serpa Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of the Azores; Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA. UAc; Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence NICA – UAc, the Azores, Portugal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36941/jesr-2022-0001

Keywords:

Social Sciences, COVID-19 pandemic, inequalities, intergenerational inequalities, equality of opportunity, new normal, socioeconomic factors, social cohesion

Abstract

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 (either through its direct effects by the disease it causes or the measures taken in an attempt to control its spread) had, and still has, a profound effect at several levels beyond the medical, such as the economic and social, political, scientific, psychological, educational, legal and religious levels, among others. However, studies demonstrate that this influence has not been the same for all due to old inequalities and also the emergence of new inequalities. In this letter to the Editor, the authors discuss some of the contributions of the Social Sciences to the understanding of social inequalities in this new post-COVID-19 “normal” through the mobilization of relevant literature and also their experience in analysing COVID-19 with the eyes of the Social Sciences, notwithstanding their plurality. The results of this analysis allow concluding that the Social Sciences can make a very relevant contribution – in an interdisciplinary way – to the understanding of this phenomenon of the relationship between COVID-19 and inequalities based on socioeconomic factors with the aim of increasing social cohesion and social justice.

Received: 4 October 2021 / Accepted: 11 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022