Others’ Stories and Building Counter-Hegemonies

Abstract

How should we begin writing this introduction against the background of a signifi- cant turn in the history of humanity? “Unprecedented” is the term that has been used widely in the popular and academic world since December 2019. Stories in the future will tell what we are going through now as a major outbreak that spread globally and turned into a pandemic while life in many countries seemingly had to stop. Yet, although millions died, and despite the grim conditions, life did not stop. Those who survive have continued living, working (including working on the streets and commuting, if they had to), writing, reading, and telling stories of life and work. The old and new normal have overlapped, but for many with more suf- fering and in a life-threatening context. This volume is a collection of stories written from multiple locations reflect- ing their own meanings and epistemes despite and within the COVID-19 pan- demic conditions combined with the responsibility of living a meaningful life. It arises out of a sense of responsibility to our families, colleagues, profession and society in the face of the exacerbated inequalities of race, gender and income across the world. These inequalities and power relations remain continuously con- tested, particularly in these trying times, despite being captive to a particular eco- nomic ideology built on the premise of exploitation and subjugation. The stories told in this volume tell against the orthodoxy, the colonizer and the (seemingly) powerful.