We will need to rebuild after COVID-19, but building back better requires building back differently. It’s time to talk about a feminist green new deal; a ‘rainbow recovery’.
In many parts of the world, the COVID pandemic, in combination with a looming economic depression and climate emergency, is convincing many of the need for a recalibration of our social and economic priorities. Amid these interlocking crises of late capitalism and unprecedented uncertainty, resolve is growing to find a recovery plan which far from a return to normal, foregrounds people and planet, communities and care.
Googling the phrase ‘build back better’ yields hits on commentaries by such diverse actors as the World Economic Forum and business lobby groups, policy think tanks and mayors of fragile cities. It is a slogan typically used in the aftermath of natural disasters to boost the spirits of citizens and investors with great promises of new opportunities rising up from the ruins. Humans are resilient, they claim, we know how to bounce back after a shock. While many find hope in these promises of recovery, others advise caution, often with reference to Naomi Klein’s 2007 book 'The Shock Doctrine' that coined the term disaster capitalism.
