Professor Kim Ki-Heung analysed the COVID-19 and quarantine strategy, which caused immobility in our lives, from two perspectives: social constructionism and actor-network theory. He explained that: “While social constructionism focuses on social systems, contextual conditions, and how actors are managed, the actor-network theory paid attention to the process of building and rebuilding network between (quasi)actors.”
Professor Kim Ki-Heung said the South Korea’s success aginst COVID-19 is based on the space quarantine that applies dense space as a basic unit and a stable network reconstructed through past experiences. He pointed out that understanding the current pandemic situation requires a hybrid re-conceptualisation of nature-society/human-non-human and a new imagination.
Professor Kim Ki-Heung received a Ph. D. in science and technology from the University of Edinburgh in England. He is currently working at the Department of Humanities &Social Science in POSTECH after obtaining a degree from the University of London and Imperial College. He is studying the formation of scientific knowledge, the relationship with society, and the historical and social effects of various human-animal infectious diseases. His books include Relationships and Boundaries: Humans and Animals in the Corona Era, Roboscape, Diseases in History, Diseases in Society. His papers include “Construction of the Covid-19 Disease-scapes” and “Situating the Anthropocene.”
