Society and communities
After the virus: building a more resilient and fairer society
It is too soon to know how Covid-19 will change the world, but it is already clear that it will touch almost every aspect of our lives.
The immediate process of recovery will pose health, social and economic challenges. The virus will also change the context in which we address issues that previously preoccupied us, like climate change, sustainable food and tackling modern slavery.
It is likely to change things we took for granted, such as the way we travel for business, pleasure and for trade.
Lockdown is driving digital and other innovations in the way we work, socialise, exercise and enjoy culture, which may have lasting impact, and benefits.
Being separated from loved ones, friends and collective social events will have consequences for our emotional well-being and mental health.
"Lockdown is driving digital and other innovations in the way we work, socialise, exercise and enjoy culture, which may have lasting impact, and benefits."
The Institute for Policy and Engagement at the University of Nottingham has launched this blog series as a forum to begin to explore these issues.
In the first of the series, Professor Zoe Trodd of the Rights Lab looks at the impact on the world’s fight to end modern slavery.
This will be a space for our experts to identify the challenges we will need to tackle and the opportunities we should grasp, as well as the questions which will need to be researched.
It will be a place to provoke debate and to float ideas, with authors writing in a personal capacity. I hope it will be thought-provoking, and please join the discussion.
Follow the Institute on Twitter to continue the debate.
Stephen Meek
Stephen Meek is Director of the University of Nottingham’s Institute for Policy and Engagement.