Vaccine hesitancy and refusal during the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy: Individualistic claims or repoliticization?

Authors

  • Elisa Lello University of Urbino
  • Niccolò Bertuzzi University of Parma
  • Marco Pedroni University of Ferrara
  • Luca Raffini University of Genoa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v15i3p672

Keywords:

Covid-19, VHR (Vaccine Hesitancy – Refusal), Individualisation, Institutional trust, Health politicisation, Responsibility

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted new (or renewed) forms of conflict within a longer path of distrust and dissatisfaction towards politics and growing scepticism towards 'official truths' and 'official science'. Italy was the first European and Western country in which the pandemic spread in February 2020, and also one that adopted particularly stringent measures to contain the virus. In this scenario, a country in which political distrust was particularly diffused experienced an increase in institutional trust, accompanied by a strong demand for security from above. At the same time, radicalisation and distrust have grown among larger strata of the Italian population, leading to a significant polarisation of the public sphere. This essay critically embraces the perspective of the vast and plural universe of vaccine hesitancy and refusal (VHR) and, more generally, the materialisations of conflict concerning vaccines and policies aimed to address the Covid-19 pandemic. In the media and public debate, these protests have been mainly regarded as populist, driven by individualistic claims nurtured by indifference towards the collective good. We specifically explore whether VHR should be viewed exclusively as a sign of selfishness and populism or also as a form of repoliticisation around new issues and, in particular, as an expression of critical citizenship manifesting doubts about the decisions made by politicians, affirming a critique of the model of instrumental rationality, and advocating a pluralist debate on complex issues which directly affect individual life-choices and the body. Our study is based on 67 qualitative interviews with VHR citizens and a focus group with four key figures of the 'Movimento 3V' (3VM), a minor Italian party advocating freedom of choice in relation to vaccines.

Author Biographies

Elisa Lello, University of Urbino

Elisa Lello is assistant professor in Sociology at the University of Urbino (Italy). Her research interests mainly focus on emerging forms of political engagement, the younger generations’ approach to politics, and the relationship between territorial inequalities and populism. Her works have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Rural Sociology, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Modern Italy, Polis, Sociologia urbana e rurale. She has published some articles and contributions focused on political mobilizations dealing with health issues since the controversy about the 2017 Italian law extending paediatric vaccine mandates, including Populismo anti-scientifico o nodi irrisolti della biomedicina? Prospettive a confronto intorno al movimento free vax (Anti-scientific populism or biomedicine’s unresolved knots? Comparing perspectives about the movements for the freedom of choice on vaccines), Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 3, 2020.

Niccolò Bertuzzi, University of Parma

Niccolò Bertuzzi is assistant professor in Political Sociology at the University of Parma (Italy), and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Barcelona (Spain), where he previously worked as a Maria Zambrano Fellow. He is also a member of several research networks, such as COSMOS (Centre on Social Movement Studies) and POE (Politics Ontology Ecology). He obtained his PhD in Applied Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at University Milano-Bicocca. His scholarship has been published in important academic journals, among which: American Behavioral Scientists, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, Sociology Compass, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Social Movement Studies, Journal of Consumer Culture. Among his main research interests: social movement studies, prefigurative politics, alternatives to capitalism, political ecology. 

Marco Pedroni, University of Ferrara

Marco Pedroni is an Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Ferrara (Italy). His work is mainly focused on digital media, fashion and cultural industries. He is the author of Coolhunting (FrancoAngeli, 2010), a co-author of Fenomenologia dei social network (Guerini, 2017), a co-editor of Moda e arte (FrancoAngeli, 2012) and Fashion Tales: Feeding the Imaginary (Peter Lang, 2017), the editor of From Production to Consumption: The Cultural Industry of Fashion (Interdisciplinary, 2013) and a co-editor of I media e la moda (Carocci, 2022). His works have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Fashion Theory, Poetics and The Journal of Consumer Culture. On the issue of the pandemic, he has published essays on the media narratives of the Covid-19 emergency and the polarisation of public debate and conducted qualitative research on ‘no-vaxxers’ and hesitants.

Luca Raffini, University of Genoa

Luca Raffini is an Assistant Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Genoa (Italy). His research has focused on social and political change, the relationship between individual and collective action, participation, social innovation, mobility and migration, political communication. He has recently been investigating conflicts over science and health, with particular reference to the pandemic context. Recent publications include Mobilità e migrazioni, con A. Giorgi (Milano, 2020) and Giovani e politica. La reinvenzione del sociale, con A. Pirni (Milano, 2022). On the topic of the consequences of the pandemic, he has co-edited, with L. Alteri, L. Parks, T. Vitale, the monographic issue of PACO, (3/2021) Covid-19 and the Structural Crisis of Liberal Democracies. Determinants and Consequences of the Governance of Pandemic.


 

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Published

12-01-2023

Issue

Vol. 15, No. 3 (2022). Special issue on: "Investigating Vaccine Controversies during the Covid-19 Pandemic"

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Special Issue

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