Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Power of the West in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Wiki-workshop meeting summary: 20/11/20
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l (legrandherbage could not attend due to an event relating to family)

Initial ideas

 * Global health - Spanish influenza
 * The conflict between sociologists and biologists in determining sex

What we decided to focus on
Topic: the distribution of resources (masks/testing kits/ PPE/vaccines) during the coronavirus pandemic

Issue: Power

Disciplines: medicine/epidemiology/global health, economics, moral philosophy, international relations/postcolonialism, (politics)

Possible tensions: economics (utilitarianism) vs moral philosophy (fair/even distribution of vaccines regardless of age/previous health), postcolonialism/IR vs moral philosophy

Additional points
Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 14:38, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * To ensure we all reference consistently, we'll be following the guidelines for Vancouver-style referencing mentioned on this website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/sites/library/files/references-plagiarism.pdf

Meeting summary: 24/11/20
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 14:38, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * We discussed research we found for each discipline - available on our Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gzu7B-_cSaXskSN8x6Hg8ONJi5fvKY1xnVRZe3NYgp4/edit
 * We agreed upon a preliminary structure for the chapter: Introduction - Economics vs moral philosophy - Global health vs postcolonialism - Conclusion
 * We set ourselves an internal deadline of 27/11/20 to write the main bodies of information for the page, which we will go over during our next meeting

Meeting summary: 27/11/20
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 01:03, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
 * We each presented our research on the power in disciplines from last week and we realised that we were focusing too much on the case study and not enough on the disciplines and the notion of power
 * Changed our topic from power in distribution of resources during the pandemic to power in the general response to the pandemic
 * We want to change our structure: Write about power in each discipline separately and then address the conflicts and possible solutions in the conclusion
 * Our plan on what we need to do until 01.12.2020: Each do specific research on power in their discipline and how power dynamics in that discipline affect the COVID response tactic; identify conflicts between those response tactics (e.g. some disciplines favouring less strict rules like Sweden vs. other disciplines favouring lockdowns); maybe find other disciplines involved except for Global Health, Postcolonial Studies, Philosophy/Ethics, Economics and International Relations)

Meeting summary: 01/12/20
Attendees : Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs)
 * Compared the outcomes of our research, which we had directed towards the power inequalities within each of our disciplines.
 * Read and discussed some examples of structures from the 2019/2020 Wikibooks.
 * Examined the inequalities within our disciplines, whether they are gender, race or location-based.
 * Debated on how and where to integrate the topic of post colonialism.
 * Considered the potential structures and links between our disciplines.

Meeting summary: 04/12/20
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 14:06, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Each of us presented his or her paragraph on the notion of power in his or her discipline and together we discussed possible improvements in terms of both content and presentation
 * We reviewed the structure of our wikibook chapter, focusing on the links between our disciplines. Thus, the different parts will be linked according to the conflicts between the disciplines (e.g. the section on global health will be followed by the section on economics since tensions clearly appear between these two fields of study). In terms of structure, we also decided to integrate the tensions between our disciplines within our paragraphs.
 * We worked on the problem of the number of words by setting limits in order to stay as close as possible to the given instructions
 * We decided to integrate the section on post-colonial studies into the section on global health
 * We discussed the content of our introduction and conclusion

Meeting summary: 08/12/20
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 10:09, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
 * We reread the parts of each of us to add the latest changes. We mainly tried to highlight the links between our disciplines, which were sometimes not explicit enough. The other comments we made were mainly recommendations to reduce our word count.
 * We have finalised our introduction and agreed on the content of the conclusion which will be written by Friday by one of us. The conclusion will therefore focus on the tensions and conflicts between disciplines in order to summarise them in a clear and simple way.
 * We have chosen Friday as the deadline for the content of our wikibook chapter. The few remaining days will be dedicated to the presentation of our article as well as to the final checks.

Meeting summary : 11/12/2020
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 19:02, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
 * We reviewed the structure of our chapter and decided that a "discipline vs. discipline" formulation for each section would be more relevant to our approach.
 * We talked about the "economics vs. global health" section should emphasize how protecionism is used to assess power over other countries.
 * We decided it would be best to merge the 1st and 2nd paragraph in "philosophy vs. anthropology" by removing the last sentence of the 1st one. This creates a more direct link and adds words for me to talk more about Ubuntu philosophy.
 * We read through the "international relations vs. global health" section, trying to the come up with ways of rephrasing and removing unnecessary formulations.
 * We have concluded that, for our next and last meeting on Sunday, we should have reached the maximum word count allowed, added all of our references, and all the content should be finalised!

Meeting summary : 13/12/2020
Attendees: Humorousaspofgiganticbog, Ernapst, Andreilla.m.l, legrandherbage

Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 16:59, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * We reviewed our texts and fixed discrepancies in referencing and spelling.
 * We changed the title of our chapter to "Power of the West in response to the COVID-19 pandemic" since our main focus is on how the West has influenced the global response to the pandemic.
 * We added necessary references and wikilinks.
 * We decided to submit the chapter today.

Comments
The contribution made by an anonymous IP address was Ernapst. I was not logged in when I made that contribution. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:31, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Introduction
Hello! I rephrased the introduction slightly to remove some words and specifically mention the West. Do you think we should maybe mention the issue of power in our introduction as well (depending on the word count), or would it suffice to just refer to power in the main paragraphs and conclusion? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 15:23, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Your changes are great. I think that defining the notion of power would be relevant but I don't know if it's essential so it really depends on how many words we use. Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 19:30, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! I changed the introduction a bit! I copied the old version into the google doc so we can still access it. I removed some wordings that seemed superfluous to me and added a part where it specifically mentions the disciplines we are addressing and the fact that we are focusing on power dynamics, which I think is very important. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 00:00, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! In our previous meeting we talked about our willingness to add four references corresponding to our four disciplines after the sentence about the participation of experts in different fields on decision making. I think this is a good idea, do you still want to do it? Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 12:41, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Yes, I think it'll help verify our claim that people from the disciplines are involved through their actions in influencing government decision. What do other people think? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 13:22, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

General notes
Hello everyone!We had already mentioned it but while rereading our wikibook chapter I realised that changing our title would be very relevant (the distribution of resources during the pandemic seems too specific to me). What do you think about it? --Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 09:40, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, yes you're right, it does not really fit anymore as we have drifted away from our original ideas. I think the other title we had mentionned was "Power in the general response to the covid pandemic"! But maybe now yet another one would be more appropriate. Let's talk about it in today's meeting, see you then!! Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 09:47, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

I agree! To maintain some degree of specificity, maybe we should refer to the West's decision-making and response to the pandemic, since in most of our sections we focus on how Western academics are disregarding strategies from the global South and often unwilling to co-operate internationally to the same extent as other nations? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:41, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hey everyone! I checked and we are at 1374 words, we still have 174 words to remove. The parts that have not reduced their text yet are Global Health and International Relations. Don't forget! :D Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 08:50, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I agree with you, I know it's difficult but we really have to respect the word limit. Maybe we can find ways to reduce this number in our meeting this afternoon if that's ok with you? Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 10:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! When I was adding Wikilinks a message appeared saying they should be used sparsely in Wikibooks. During our meeting today, maybe we should discuss which links we think are necessary/important for understanding our chapter's content, and which ones we could perhaps remove? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 15:01, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Global health section
Hey! When you talk about the inequality in the COVID taskforces between men and women, I think it would be really interesting if you elaborated a bit more on that, meaning what are the specific consequences of that imbalance? Maybe, amid this pandemic, health concerns that affect women are being considered less. Here's an interesting article from the lancet about how access to reproductive health care for women has decreased due to covid and the effects of that (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31679-2/fulltext) Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 01:02, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I just added a bit to the economics section on how sexual and reproductive healthcare has been affected, as I felt most of the decision-making had been controlled by economists, and not global health specialists, as such, if that makes sense? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 13:10, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! I think it may be beneficial for the structure of the essay if you add something about the global and collaborative approach to the COVID crisis of global health so I can contrast it to the less cooperative approach in international relations. What do you think? Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 04:19, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I think that's a good idea! Alternatively, we can also mention that in the economics section as I've found an article that directly criticises current economic policy/unilateralism against the aims of global health? We can discuss this in the meeting today! Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 11:27, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Economics section
I have found your research very interesting regarding the different natures of power asymmetries within the discipline! Perhaps you could include examples of how the lack of female representation in the field has influenced response strategies, in order to integrate the case-study a little bit more? Here's an interesting article I've found on feminist approaches to economics during the Covid-19 pandemic. Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 14:38, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your comment! I will read the article and see if feminist studies could completed my part about economics! --Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 17:22, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

If you want to take a look, I have read your article and added information about the impact of the lack of female representation in econs on responses to the pandemic. The article was very interesting, thanks! --Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 18:05, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! As discussed, I edited the power dynamics section and mentioned the impact of them on sexual and reproductive healthcare for women, in addition how that may conflict with global health. Please let me know if you think it's relevant, if not feel free to edit it! Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 13:16, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Thank you for your slight modifications on the impact of the under-representation of women in the discipline of economics on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we discussed during our meeting, the link with Global Health is now more explicit which is a good thing. I'm going to make some small changes tomorrow but again it is very interesting, thank you!--Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 20:52, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I really like how you connected the predominance of men in the discipline to the fact that women’s health needs were overlooked during the pandemic (abortion clinics not deemed necessary). I noticed that you still have extra words before getting to the word count, and I have a few suggestions on how you can reduce it! You can get rid of “unnecessary” formulations like : ‘it has been noted’ because it is referenced anyway! Maybe avoid writing the ‘covid 19 pandemic’ because we already know what pandemic we are talking about. I don’t think you need to precise : ‘WHO (one of the key regulators of research in the discipline)’ because as it’s the World Health Organisation, it is implied. Anyway, I think the way you have linked Global Health and Economics by using protectionism was a great idea!!! Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 09:22, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

I have found some interesting data that you could maybe mention when you discuss protectionism : South Africa banned all international travel within 10 days of detecting the first covid case, which I think is way faster than other countries! It could broaden our perspective on the Global South. Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 13:02, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Thank you very much for all your advice on how to reduce my word count. I will take them into account. As for your suggestion on South Africa's handling of the crisis, I think it goes very well with my part on protectionism. So depending on my word count, I will see if I can mention it. Thank you very much for your very relevant advice! Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 19:34, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Could you connect the part in your section that is about protectionism with the power dynamic you mentioned and also connect it to a potential interdisciplinary tension (e.g. with global health)? I think if we do not connect our disciplinary issues with a power dynamic, we lose focus of our topic, i.e. power in the response to the pandemic. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:48, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I am already making a link with Global health and explaining that if cooperation is advocated in this discipline, it is rather the opposite in economics.Also, I think I already mentioned the notion of power but maybe you think it is not explicit enough? Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 10:57, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Yes, I think it is much better now since you make clear that protectionism is an issue of power, namely wealthy countries dominating the international stage. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:35, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

International relations section
Hello! Your section about the power in the discipline of international relations is really interesting! As we said during our meeting, you could add something about the notion of solidarity and cooperation between coutries during the pandemic. I found a lot of information about that using this liknk so I wanted to share it with you: https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/ga12273.doc.htm --Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 17:31, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Thanks for the input; Since I am talking about realism in IR, I think that addresses the solidarity and (lack of) international cooperation. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:40, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I have found your section very interesting! I noticed there was some overlap between IR and behavioural economics, so maybe we should consider merging some of your research with the economics section, so the page doesn't become too repetitive? We can discuss this in our meeting tomorrow! Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Yes, that makes sense. I have removed that part as it fits much better in the economics section! Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:40, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I have found your section very interesting! I noticed there was some overlap between IR and behavioural economics, so maybe we should consider merging some of your research with the economics section, so the page doesn't become too repetitive? We can discuss this in our meeting tomorrow! Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I found an article for my section but it might be useful to your section as well. It is about how African philosophy has shaped the response to the pandemic. In it, it also contrasts Africa's response to the rest of the Western World's. Which shows the underlying tensions between the South and the North, it also mentions how the western remedies to the corona are being considered in Africa, comparing them to the herbal remedies that are being studied by African scientists. https://www.theafricareport.com/27180/coronavirus-can-ubuntu-philosophy-provide-a-way-to-face-health-crises/ Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 14:22, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I thought your section was very good! In order to make the page flow a bit more, perhaps you could talk about the tensions with global health (i.e. France confiscating vaccines) at the beginning of the paragraph and then link that to IR afterwards, as the economics section ends with tensions relating to global health, so it might be a bit more cohesive? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:37, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! I would prefer not to do that because I think establishing the power dynamic in IR first is more important since that is the main focus is on that dynamic. Thank you for the feedback! Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 23:37, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Don't forget to put your references, if possible before the meeting this afternoon so that we can read all our references together and check their consistency! Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 12:34, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Post-colonial studies section
Hello everyone! As we are doing a part on post-colonial studies as we said in our meeting, I realized while writing my part on economics that maybe we should write a sentence or two on the power of the Global North in our disciplines but no more. The part on post-colonialist studies is very good. I think it would be relevant to explain in this part that the policies that have been put in place do not correspond to the less developed countries, hence the emergence of tensions and perhaps add examples such as the impossibility of respecting social distancing or regular hand washing in some less developed countries. What do you think about this?--Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 11:26, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Whilst I do think we need to integrate tensions a bit more into our page, I think we also need to specify how the power dynamics in our disciplines have affected the formulation of specific response strategies (i.e. global health -> social distancing). Shall we discuss this in our meeting tomorrow? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Yes! We will look further into this tomorrow! I think talking about the emergence of tentions as policies cannot be applied everywhere would be very interesting. However, it might fit better into the Internation Relations section though! Something to think about... :) Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 14:29, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! For the postcolonial studies section, I think it would also be great if we give more specific examples of how more research in the global south and a better understanding of the influence of colonialism can benefit the global south in future pandemics. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 16:37, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I thought we had decided to integrate the parts on post-colonial studies with that on Global health. Could we revisit this point in our meeting today since I must have misunderstood (however, it may be worth considering, especially in view of the fact that we are over the word limit of the chapter).--Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 09:33, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Indeed I thought that's what we had agreed on as well. Since it's a highly relevant and well thought-out part, instead of having it as an individual section, we should consider putting it as a subtitle for "Global Health". Talk about it during our meeting! Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 09:54, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Philosophy section
Hi! When you talk about the cultural relativism, could you connect it to a power imbalance in philosophy? For example, large parts of philosophy are highly influenced by western culture (e.g. individualism) and that affects the philosophy of ethical decision-making in a certain way. Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 14:01, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Your part on philosophy is very good. I think you should reduce your explanations on the philosophical theories of utilitarianism and Kant's notion of dignity. Two sentences for each should be enough as long as it's clear. The aim would be to talk more about power dynamics related to cultural relativism (a very relevant concept by the way!). --Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 14:13, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I thought your research on philosophy and Ubuntu was very good. Perhaps you could focus on conflicting power dynamics between philosophy (v.Westernised) and anthropology (focusing on the cultural relativism aspect), in order to talk about tensions a little bit more? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 12:34, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi everyone, thank you for you insightful comments, I will take those things into account when rewriting my draft! Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 12:50, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! Your part on the Ubuntu philosophy is really interesting. I don't know if you agree with me but I advise you to make a link between the notion of collective solidarity of this philosophy and the discipline of Global Health. In this way, the tensions between these two disciplines would be even clearer! Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 20:24, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, yes that's a great idea! Thank you! Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 09:11, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi, I think your section is great but could you try to clarify more which aspect of philosophy the concept of cultural relativism clashes with? Also, I believe the bit about Ubuntu is a great place to talk about how that would be a great way to improve international collaboration (in contrast to the approach taken in IR). Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 00:20, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I think your part is very good, but maybe you should try to refer to power a bit more? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 13:28, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi, yes you're right I should definitely explain more explicitly the power dynamics. Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 18:21, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! I read over your part and changed the wording a bit and fixed some grammar errors. I hope that's okay. If you do not agree, I have copied your version into the google doc at the bottom. I deleted the sentence about christianity and the focus on helping the weaker ones because I think that applies just as much to non-Christian countries as some of them want to protect the elderly who are also often weaker than young people. Also, could you add some references to back up some claims you are making (e.g. "western approaches/philosophies are more individualistic or people in Asia often emphasize respect for the elderly)? Moreover, you mention anthropology in the first paragraph and then not address it further. I think you should put that sentence into the second paragraph in order not to distract from the point you are making the first one, namely that, in the response to the pandemic, western countries have ignored other philosophies due to the power of western philosophers in philosophy. Then, in the second paragraph, you can address the conflict between philosophy and anthropology, meaning that anthropology has a global approach and considers cultural differences while philosophy has not done that as they mostly use western philosophies. Let's discuss it tomorrow! Ernapst (discuss • contribs) 00:08, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Conclusion
Hello! The conclusion is interesting and sums up well I think the conflicts and tensions between our disciplines. I have made some very slight modifications, notably by removing some formulations that added a lot of words. Furthermore, I think it would be interesting to find a relevant and new angle, a kind of opening. Or at least perhaps link the sentences together more so that they are more fluid. Perhaps we could talk about this in our meeting this afternoon?Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 12:32, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I agree with you! I have just tried to rephrase and merge the sentences on postcolonial studies and cultural relativism together in order to remove some words, please let me know if that's alright, if not we can revert it. Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 13:25, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi! I think it's better now thank you! Legrandherbage (discuss • contribs) 15:17, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I changed the 'anthropological approach of cultural relativism' bit to 'broadening lenses of cultural anthropology' as I think the discipline more, rather than the concept itself, allows other disciplines to shift their focus to the Global South. I also switched 'gendered power imbalances' and 'domninance of western academia' because I think it might be better to put what we are focusing on the most, before. Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 19:51, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Actually, I realised that when we develop those two ideas 'gendered power imbalances' and 'domninance of western academia'; we start by talking about the gendered power imbalances which might be "disturbing" with the flow of the paragraph... At the same time, I know we agreed on not finishing the paragraph with the gender part! Let me know what you think. I can switch those two again, I thought it's always better to put the most relevant first when giving a list of examples. But it's also good if we finish on western dominance! So I really don't know what would be best... Humorousaspofgiganticbog (discuss • contribs) 20:03, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I personally think it's fine if we both start and end the conclusion with the Western dominance part. I also think referring to the discpline of cultural anthropology works really well as well! Do you mind if I remove the "broadening lenses of" part, as you already mention that in the anthropology section immediately before? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 20:13, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Referencing
Hello, I noticed that in some of our references we use [Internet] whilst in others we say [online]. Also, sometimes our references appear in the middle of the sentence, whilst most appear at the end. During our meeting today shall we decide which methods to use, in order to be more consistent? Andreilla.m.l (discuss • contribs) 14:58, 13 December 2020 (UTC)