Long-term Societal Impacts of COVID-19

Kevin Grecksch contributes to major report on the long-term societal impacts of COVID-19

Kevin Grecksch, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the CSLS, contributed to British Academy’s evidence review, The COVID decade: Understanding the long-term societal impacts of COVID-19 and the accompanying policy analysis, Shaping the COVID decade. The British Academy convened and engaged with over 200 academics, practitioners and policy specialists, spanning academic fields from social psychology and philosophy to economics and history, and drawing together insights from civil society and communities to national policymakers. This research has already had been reported by the Guardian, the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and ITV news. 

Kevin reviewed evidence in the areas of Communities, Culture and Belonging and Knowledge, Skills and Employment. In his synthesis he focused on aspects of climate change, adaptation, water governance and the governance and regulation of underground space, specifically with regard to communities and civil society and in the context of sustainability. In his synthesis Kevin reviewed evidence on the power of local knowledge particularly in relation to how COVID-19 much like climate change is a global phenomenon, but the impacts are local and they differ from locality to locality, meaning a complete rethinking of current, overcentralised policy making is needed. He finds that focusing on local knowledge could lead to regaining trust in political institutions and legitimise decisions and measures taken locally.