新型コロナウイルス下における新たな「介入の政治」とその都市的意味

抄録

　COVID-19 and its countermeasures have caused large-scale state intervention as a “disaster” to which the Act on Special Measures for New Influenza is applied. The institutionalization of “emergency”, which was introduced in the form of diverting measures to respond to the preceding nuclear disaster and military crisis, had the following characteristics. First, the “emergency” declaration distinguishes “peacetime” and “emergency” temporally and spatially. Secondly, after setting the level of three layers of country, prefecture, and municipality, a “countermeasure headquarters” was set up for each layer to make comprehensive adjustments. In the case of COVID-19, the prefectural layer occupied the core in particular. Third, departments and organizations such as police, fire department, medical care, public health, welfare, and transportation were linked through the headquarters, and the headquarters put individuals, private companies, residents’ organizations, NPOs, etc. into the “emergency” system, and aimed to mobilize them. The politics of the new intervention evolved as a dual-meaning event for neoliberalism, which faced a serious inequality problem. The new corona measures have resulted in a rapid expansion of state intervention, exposing the limits of neoliberal policy management. On the other hand, it contained elements that resonated with neoliberal claims such as “self-responsibility.” Furthermore, infectious disease control was merged with the policy of promoting digitalization, which was linked to the creation of a new accumulation base for capitalism. However, inadequate “intervention” has created abandoned individuals and territories within the community. It is becoming more meaningful to focus on cities and regions as a stage for analyzing various aspects of transformation caused by COVID-19 as a process of both conjunctural and structural events.