Solidarity and political narratives in crises – responses to deviant communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Solidarity is still important in modern societies, and it gains even more relevance during crises, such as ecological crises, health crises or during armed conflicts. This paper focuses on political narratives on solidarity and measures to overcome the crises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to four examples, it describes cases that contradict or call political narratives into question. As a result, this paper demonstrates how strong political narratives can be. This goes along with a reduced acceptance of deviating communication and a desire to correct or sanction people whose statements deviate from political narratives. Finally, several social implications of this pressure to conform are discussed.

Keywords

• communication
• covid-19
• crises
• political narratives
• punitive attitudes
• social representations
• solidarity