Scotland after the Virus is a major political and cultural intervention exploring how society has been affected by the impact of COVID-19 and the challenges and world which will emerge after the virus. Its co-editors are Dr Gerry Hassan and Simon Barrow – who have previously co-edited two books on the SNP in office, and twenty years of devolution in Scotland.
It brings together a range of the leading public figures in the country, along with new, emergent and diverse voices. It also contains a number of different styles: fiction with nine shirt stories, six poems and 25 non-fiction essays.
The contributions cover politics, economics, culture, power, the politics of care, loss and death, meaning of borders, the nature of connectedness and relationships, as well as how the idea of Scotland and Britain is changing both in the long term and due to the pressure points of the virus.
This project has been commissioned to explore the potential for more progressive politics and thinking coming out of the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.