Co-Duties: Democratic Commitments, Common Challenges, and the Common Good after COVID-19

This project will help us to better understand the relationship between individual duties and collective action in response to large-scale societal challenges. Grounded in a comparative (empirical and theoretical) study of the duties allocated to and undertaken by individuals during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Norway, France and the UK, the project analyses how duties were performed and understood during the time-limited period of the lockdowns. To do this the project combines innovative empirical investigation with comparative analysis and theory-building. In each country we study three basic duty types - (vertical) civic duties, (horizontal) duties of humanitarian assistance, and (closed) associational duties to family and neighbourhoods - to explore what it is that accounts for individuals' willingness to bear imperfect duties (duties of justice) beyond those they are required to perform by law (duties of justice). The study of duties has to date been substantially under-examined relative to the study of rights. CO-DUTIES innovates by first explaining this "duties gap", diagnosing its significance for political discourse (with respect to "duties of virtue" in particular) and then closing it through empirical research. Second, in a social science literature that mostly looks to rational accounts of self-interest and incentives to understand individual willingness to address "greater good" challenges, CO-DUTIES will apply the aforementioned insights into duty-bearing to frame a different way of approaching collective action problems. Finally, it develops a novel theoretical framework of "duties regimes" to this end. The project thereby provides new academic insights and policy-relevant knowledge: (a) through its theoretical contributions to history, political science and sociology, (b) as part of the broader societal learning from COVID-19, and (c) for our understanding of how best to respond to other "greater good" challenges.