In the past two decades, Southeast Asia endured the appearance of three new zoonotic infectious diseases in the form of coronaviruses. Among them, COVID-19 has the most critical impact in terms of health and economy, linked to the increasing density and mobility of the human and animal populations as well as the regional rapid market integration. In addition, the virus poses political and social consequences. Coupled with the unequal distribution of economic growth, low levels of social protection, and authoritarian tendencies in the regional governments’ responses, the pandemic reinforces existing inequalities faced by vulnerable populations, particularly women, informal workers, migrant people, and persons disabled by the circumstances and social organization.

The lockdown measures that urged millions of citizens to stay at home put a halt to the 2019 wave of mass citizens’ protests for democracy and social justice. However, in a context where the state of emergency has become the normal condition and where the implementation of extraordinary security measures involve suspending life to protect it (Agamben 2020), less visible resistance, engagements, and solidarities mushroom and organize themselves. Social activists and ordinary citizens denounce the weight of inequalities in facing the virus, set up mutual aid groups, inform their fellow citizens in popular education campaigns, and monitor national policies (Pleyers 2020: 13).

Then, the COVID-19 outbreak engages a struggle over the meaning of the crisis in a context of increased polarization between authoritarian-style neoliberalism, which sickness shows through the current rise of identarian and reactionary activism (Bayart 2017), and alternative propositions striving to reconnect health issues with their fundamental social, cultural, political and environmental determinants. This conference will examine these trends by including our analysis in the perspective of the reactions to the pandemic, situated at a “global moment” and contextualizing the analysis nationally and locally. This event gathers social science researchers and prominent social militant figures to contemplate alternative solutions for Southeast Asia through study cases in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

This event is supported by Fiskom, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (Salatiga, Indonesia); SEA-Junction (Bangkok, Thailand); and the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (Paris, France).