Work Package 5: Inequalities & Epidemic Policies

WP5 informs policy-makers on the importance of inequalities when promoting societal resilience.

How have ‘epidemic policies’ in the past affected resilience? Are policies which explicitly take into account inequalities more efficient in promoting resilience than more ‘universal’ policies?

WP5 will investigate the effectiveness of existing hygienic, economic and social policies and their (re)distributing capacities as well as policies developed during the outbreak to mitigate its impact.

By comparing policies and institutional arrangements during several epidemic waves in history at the national, regional and local level, continuities and divergences in policy making capacity as well as specific local concerns and power relations will come to the fore.

The qualitative analysis in this WP will proceed in different steps, by close-reading of regulations as well as reports of a diverse set of policy makers, institutions and pressure groups. This will result in the compilation of a policy matrix which can subsequently be confronted with inequalities in mortality (WP2), employment (WP3) and poverty (WP4).