Testing Care and Morality: Everyday Testing During COVID-19 in Denmark

Charlotte Tornøe Ekkelund Nørholm; Jens Seeberg; Andreas Roepstorff; Mette Terp Hoybye

doi:10.1080/01459740.2024.2324897

Testing Care and Morality: Everyday Testing During COVID-19 in Denmark

Charlotte Tornøe Ekkelund Nørholm^*, Jens Seeberg, Andreas Roepstorff, Mette Terp Hoybye

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

COVID-testing was central to control the spread of infection in Denmark. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we show that testing was not just a diagnostic sign; it was also a biosocial practice that enacted a public health morality, centered on responsibility, care, and belonging. We argue that testing led to a public healthicization of everyday life, as it moralized individual and collective behavior and created a moral divide between the tested and the untested. By attending to COVID-19 testing as a material-semiotic sign, we show how testing is embedded within a particular cultural and moral framework of the Danish welfare state.

Original language	English
Journal	Medical Anthropology
Volume	43
Issue	2
Pages (from-to)	146-160
Number of pages	15
ISSN	0145-9740
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2024.2324897
Publication status	Published - Mar 2024

Keywords

COVID-19
COVID-19 Testing
Public Health
Ethnography
Denmark
public health morality
testing
pandemic
ethnography
Humans
Anthropology, Medical
Morals

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10.1080/01459740.2024.2324897Licence: CC BY

Navigating Chronic Uncertainty: A socio-material ethnography of pandemic testing in the welfare society
Nørholm, C. T. E. (PI), Seeberg, J. (Participant), Roepstorff, A. (Award holder), Østergaard, L. J. (Collaborator) & Høybye, M. T. (Participant)
01/10/2021 → 30/06/2025
Project: Research

Cite this

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title = "Testing Care and Morality: Everyday Testing During COVID-19 in Denmark",

abstract = "COVID-testing was central to control the spread of infection in Denmark. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we show that testing was not just a diagnostic sign; it was also a biosocial practice that enacted a public health morality, centered on responsibility, care, and belonging. We argue that testing led to a public healthicization of everyday life, as it moralized individual and collective behavior and created a moral divide between the tested and the untested. By attending to COVID-19 testing as a material-semiotic sign, we show how testing is embedded within a particular cultural and moral framework of the Danish welfare state.",

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Testing Care and Morality: Everyday Testing During COVID-19 in Denmark

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Keywords

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Navigating Chronic Uncertainty: A socio-material ethnography of pandemic testing in the welfare society

Cite this