Transforming Hope Labour: Badiou, the COVID-19 Event, and Contingent Academic Work

Abstract

Studies of hope labour emphasise individual’s commitment and attachment to unpaid or undercompensated labour, a phenomenon normalised by neoliberal ideology. However, they provide limited insights into how change and transformation can occur in neoliberalism. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which interrupted the established order and transformed the political economy, we address this lacuna by drawing on Badiou’s theoretical ideas of the event. We theorise and demonstrate how the Covid-19 event has transformed the patterns of contingent academic work that sustain and reproduce hope labour. We illuminate the emergence of a new present manifested in patterns of ‘transforming academic passion’ and ‘transforming academic professionalism’.