Claustropolitanism, Capitalism and Covid: Un/Popular Culture at the End of the World

Abstract

Claustropolitanism as a new theory for foreclosed times. A theory for the end of the world, it resonates in research probing the Global Financial Crisis, but has reached a moment of profound utility through Covid and the resultant social, economic, health and political catastrophes. Capitalism, Covid and claustropolitanism align to offer a pointed provocation and recalibration of hierarchies of value, importance, relevance, and social change. The result of this reconfiguration is the emergence of un/popular culture. This article, applying the insights of deviant leisure and digitization, probes the changing role of the humanities and social sciences, with the promising opportunity to ‘Make the end of the world great again.’