Navigating Political Cultures of Solidarity. COVID-19 in the Belgian Château

摘要: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the small country of Belgium hit the international headlines, owing to one of the worst death tolls in the world. This prompted commentators to ask “why Belgium” has done so badly in the COVID-19 crisis management. Drawing on Renée Fox’ethnographic writings on Belgian culture and institutions, as well as STS scholarship on national political cultures, I will delve into the way Belgium has dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak, with the intent to tease out the distinctive “Belgianness” of the COVID-19 crisis, and the role thereby played by solidarity. Unlike international analysis that trace the Belgian crisis to its federal political structure, I will set out to demonstrate how a distinctive “political culture of solidarity” in the country has prominently shaped approaches and reactions to crisis management. Based on these insights, I will speculate on Belgium as a “Mini-Europe” to probe a critical reflection on the mobilization of solidarity in Europe in COVID-19 times.