Dalla crisi della conoscenza alla sfida sociologica: la capacità negativa come disposizione epistemica durante la pandemia da COVID-19

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Roberto Lusardi
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/3
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 9-24 File size 343 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2026-003002
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Drawing on the research experience and findings of the ECHOES project, this article offers a theoretical and methodological reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst that exposed pre-existing structural tensions in contemporary medicine. The first section traces the progressive consolidation of a techno-procedural sociotechnical imaginary that marginalized situated knowledge and limited the institutional capacity to recognize the unforeseeable. The second section reads the pandemic as a manifestation of this structural blindness: the black swan does not erupt from outside the dominant imaginary but emerges from within its own blind spot. The third section introduces negative capability as an epistemic disposition that allows actors to remain within uncertainty without resorting to illusory certainties: at once a corrective to institutional blind spots and a resource of resilience for practitioners and researchers. The fourth section examines the methodological challenges and ethical tensions in investigating this elusive field. The conclusion argues that negative capability constitutes a collective epistemic resource for building more resilient healthcare systems.

Keywords: pandemic; Evidence-Based Medicine; sociotechnical imaginary; negative capability; primary care; epistemic resilience.

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Roberto Lusardi, Dalla crisi della conoscenza alla sfida sociologica: la capacità negativa come disposizione epistemica durante la pandemia da COVID-19 in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 3/2026, pp 9-24, DOI: 10.3280/SES2026-003002