New research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon employment and inequality in the Mediterranean EU

COVID-19 is a global pandemic but has a particular geography to it, differentially affecting people and places. Recent research, co-led by Professor Andrew Herod in the Geography department, explores the pandemic's impact upon labor markets in the Mediterranean European Union (EU) countries. The researchers' analysis is part of a collective work-in-progress monitoring the pandemic’s effects upon workers since early March 2020. First they note that there is a geographical political economy to pandemics. They then scrutinize the current pandemic’s spatiality and impact upon Mediterranean EU workers. Following this, the researchers discuss how workers are responding to the pandemic and how this is remaking the geography of employment. As such, their paper represents a contribution to the ongoing development of the Labour Geography literature. Overall, they stress that workers face a variety of choices in responding to the pandemic, choices which are, of course, shaped by the geographical contexts within which workers find themselves. In deciding whether and how to act, workers are playing proactive roles in shaping COVID-19’s impact upon the geography of employment and emerging labor landscapes.

Dr. Herod was joined by post-doctoral researcher Stelios Gialis (University of the Aegean) and PhD student Kostas Gourzis (University of the Aegean), and their article is to be released early 2022. 

Article: Andrew Herod, Stelios Gialis, Stergios Psifis, Kostas Gourzis, and Stavros Mavroudeas (2022), “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon employment and inequality in the Mediterranean EU: An early look from a Labour Geography perspective.”  European Urban and Regional Studies 29.2: 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211037126