The Politics of Quarantine: The Political Implications of Negative Social Affects in the Early Stage of COVID-19 in South Korea

Abstract

We analyze the interrelationships between quarantine-related events and negative social affects during COVID-19 in South Korea. We explain the impact of these relationships on the political nature of quarantine. We conducted a discourse analysis of YouTube comments posted on COVID-19-related videos during 2020. We analyzed these affects and their social and cognitive triggers using cognition-emotion theory and affect theory. Contingent COVID-19 outbreaks in South Korea and ambiguous information contributed to fear and anger. Social disgust combined with anger as mass infection events occurred over time, influencing the attitudes of South Korean citizens who support the country’s social distancing policy. We find that social disgust realized through exclusion and purification is associated with the politics of quarantine. Consequently, we show that the political disgust surrounding quarantine was embedded within social disgust. This study paves the path for further research on the governmentality of affects and mobility in the context of epidemics.