The nation‐state, class, digital divides and social anthropology

The events of 2020 are a powerful demonstration that the decline of the nation‐state in the age of hyper‐globalisation or ‘overheating’ has, like Mark Twain’s death, been greatly exaggerated. Throughout the world (with interesting local contrasts in North America, East Asia, Scandinavia and South Asia) a massive cross‐national social‐science experiment is being carried out in real time as different strategies are adopted by neighbouring countries. It feels as if, for better or worse, we are living through a radical turning point. In the face of an existential threat, the old gods of neoliberalism are being thrown on a bonfire.