Nationalism and Global Citizenship in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Addressing Inequality and Fostering «Glo-Ubuntu» Citizenship

This article focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic, which simultaneously served as a stark reminder of our interconnectedness and shared vulnerability, while also exposing inequalities between people in their risk to the disease. However, the paper argues that the global response to the pandemic, particularly in vaccine distribution, has also revealed deep-rooted structural inequalities among nations, thus undermining the promise and theory of global citizenship. This article therefore critically assesses the significance of global citizenship as well as vaccine nationalism by reviewing existing literature in three countries in the context of the pandemic, and suggests that the concept of glocal citizenship is more appropriate as a means to tackle present and future global challenges, while acknowledging the limitations of the concept. By exploring the potential of glocal citizenship, this article seeks to address global health inequality and foster a more inclusive and equitable response to global crises.