The post-pandemic society: What is likely to change for good and what is unlikely to change?

1968 was a momentous year. It was a year of political, sexual and technological revolution that is still remembered for the Prague Spring, student protests in Paris, the escalating Vietnam War and preparations for astronauts to venture to the far side of the moon. But 1968 was also marked by a disaster that has largely been forgotten: an influenza pandemic that killed up to four million people around the world over the following two years. “Hong Kong flu” – which originated in China, but was so named because it was first recorded in the then British colony – killed more Europeans than Covid-19 has so far. Hospitals were overwhelmed. The dead went unburied. Factories and essential services were disrupted as workers fell ill. Yet once it passed, this lethal viral epidemic had no enduring impact on European societies. Fast forward to 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to our lives. Many predict that Europeans’ way of life will be changed forever. But to what extent is that actually likely to be true? Nobody can know for sure, but let me hazard some predictions about prospects for work, cities and social justice. One lasting legacy of the lockdowns is [...]

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