The pandemic state of exception: restrictions, subjectivities, and authority

Abstract The pandemic and all of its restrictions dominated public attention and social practices for almost three years. There was declared a state of exception in many national contexts during the pandemic. A revolution took place in the governing of bodies and the obstruction of sociality or the basic togetherness of humans. In a direct, physical way, the pandemic regulations were radically individualizing to a degree that had not been seen in either normal societies or normal crises and emergencies. This pandemic condition of being exposed represented a kind of extreme object existence.