Why Should We Build Back Differently?

Contributor(s): Dr Sunil Kumar | Post-COVID19, there is talk of ‘building back better’. What does this mean? Does it refer to making some improvement to existing economic and social arrangements whilst leaving much of its premise intact? Sunil Kumar draws upon his research on internal migrant construction workers in India, exploited in terms of wages as well as working and living conditions, to suggest that we should, instead, think of building back differently based on the idea of care.
He argues that we need to go beyond the notion of ‘caring for’ (the material conditions of societal relationships) to encompass notions of ‘caring about’ – the person, the human. This will require a fundamental rethink of the value that society currently places on low-wage and precarious workers. Caring about will require investments of time: time for conversations, time to listen, time to understand, time for compassion, time for solidarity, and time to act. Each of us must carve out time to care about and share these experiences with others. The spin-offs of doing so can only be positive.
Meet our speaker
Sunil Kumar (@urban_sk) is a lecturer in Social Policy and Development in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.
Find out more about Sunil's research: Social Relations, Rental Housing Markets and the Poor in Urban India (2001) Urbanisation-Construction-Migration Nexus in Five Cities in South Asia’ (2016)
This film is part of the 'Festival Shorts' series, 10-minute talks by LSE experts released during Festival week.
Keywords: Shaping the Post-COVID World, build back better, Sunil Kumar, compassion, caring for, caring about, compassion, economy, society.