Visualising “the vulnerable”: Understanding vulnerability to COVID-19 in relation to the South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)

This study investigates the definition of “vulnerability” in the visualisation and underpinning index of Stats SA’s South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)’s data visualisation dashboard. The paper establishes definitions of vulnerability in relation to literature before COVID-19, resea...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marnell Kirsten, Marina Joubert
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2022-12-01
Series:Communicare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1422
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Summary:This study investigates the definition of “vulnerability” in the visualisation and underpinning index of Stats SA’s South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)’s data visualisation dashboard. The paper establishes definitions of vulnerability in relation to literature before COVID-19, research in the time of the pandemic, and in relation to data visualisation. The discussion finds that while the pandemic is widely perceived as a “health crisis”, South African vulnerability to this pandemic is mostly constituted by factors that fall outside of normative “health” concerns – beyond “straightforward” medical, biological and epidemiological factors. Instead, South African vulnerability to COVID-19, and the “health” of its citizens in this context, are largely to be understood as systemic, socio-economic, and necropolitical conditions. It is found that these conditions have not been generated by the pandemic but have rather been exposed by it.  
ISSN:0259-0069
2957-7950