Ungrievable Lives: Race, Risk and Responsibility in Neoliberal Societies

In this book, Tanisha Spratt offers an original and much-needed exploration of whose lives society deems grievable and why. In 2020, the global fight against COVID-19, coupled with the resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) following the death of George Floyd, brought into stark clarity what many scholars and activists have long argued - that when it comes to matters of sickness and health/ life and death some lives matter and others do not. By developing Judith Butler’s theory of grievability to include contemporary discussions of blame, risk, death and dying when it comes to racial disparities in health and mortality rates, Spratt calls in contemporary and historical case studies including that of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, the war in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and Shamima Begum. From immigration and prison reform, medical ethics, health behaviours, and citizenship denial, Spratt demonstrates how, under neoliberalism, some lives are more valuable than others - and how racist, sexist and homophobic perceptions of value, risk and vulnerability deem some deaths less worthy of grief than others.

Tanisha Spratt is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Greenwich, UK, where her research focuses on the relationship between self-presentation, neoliberalism and health outcomes amongst marginalised groups.