Social Justice in the Time of COVID-19: Transcend Borders—From the Micro to the Macro, from Patagonia Argentina to the World

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is an emerging health and therefore a global social phenomenon of considerable magnitude that challenges all countries equally. Measures such as physical and social isolation, social distancing, the use of masks, continuous hand-washing, ventilation in closed spaces, avoiding hugs and kisses for a considerable time, are characteristics that cross humanity. In this chapter we address the concept of social justice as a fundamental concept put into practice in Argentina to counteract the consequences that the problem of social inequality has historically generated within the community, a fact that the pandemic has come to make visible in a savage and unavoidable way. Social justice is the axis of social intervention of the social work professional, from a restorative, redistributive, and recognition point of view. Guaranteeing access to basic rights (water, health, work, food, vaccines) is essential, taking care of each other is becoming more and more imminent, and recovering international ties by designing joint strategies to face not only the pandemic, but also the great problem of inequality, constitutes a key point.