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Visualising “the vulnerable”: Understanding vulnerability to COVID-19 in relation to the South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)

Marnell Kirsten | Bio
Senior lecturer at Red & Yellow Creative School of Business; Postgraduate student at Stellenbosch University
Marina Joubert
Stellenbosch University
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Copyright (c) 2022 Marnel Kirsten and Marina Joubert

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Visualising “the vulnerable”: Understanding vulnerability to COVID-19 in relation to the South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI). (2022). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 41(2), 103-117. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v41i2.1422
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  • Submited: August 10, 2022
  • Published: December 15, 2022

Abstract

This study investigates the definition of “vulnerability” in the visualisation and underpinning index of Stats SA’s South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)’s data visualisation dashboard. The paper establishes definitions of vulnerability in relation to literature before COVID-19, research in the time of the pandemic, and in relation to data visualisation. The discussion finds that while the pandemic is widely perceived as a “health crisis”, South African vulnerability to this pandemic is mostly constituted by factors that fall outside of normative “health” concerns – beyond “straightforward” medical, biological and epidemiological factors. Instead, South African vulnerability to COVID-19, and the “health” of its citizens in this context, are largely to be understood as systemic, socio-economic, and necropolitical conditions. It is found that these conditions have not been generated by the pandemic but have rather been exposed by it.  

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How to Cite
Visualising “the vulnerable”: Understanding vulnerability to COVID-19 in relation to the South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI). (2022). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 41(2), 103-117. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v41i2.1422

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