Professor Stefan Kipfer speaks about COVID, colonialism, and the current crisis

Professor Stefan Kipfer speaks about COVID, colonialism, and the current crisis

Stefan Kipfer, an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, was interviewed by Eterotopia France about how his book, Le temps et l'espace de la (dé)colonisation (2019), helps to shed light on key aspects of the current COVID-19 pandemic and sanitary emergency management. Kipfer speaks about health crises around the world and how they relate to colonial histories, urban planning, and surveillance in contemporary capitalism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revitalized the voices who oppose density, but density is not the only or even most important factor in risk related to COVID-19, says Kipfer. He cites, for example, the case of Kerala, India, where above-average population densities have not prevented authorities and citizens from successfully containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to the Interview in French.

For more detail, read the annotated text of the interview here.