A Sociological Perspective on Blood Plasma Donation During the Pandemic: Convalescent Gifts and Liminality

Shim and Baek examine the evolving existential meanings of gift-making by interviewing donors of convalescent blood plasma during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The book reveals what plasma donation means for their efforts to reassemble their lives from being liminal moments to livable experiences, through interviews with convalescent donors in South Korea. It shows the very multiplex meaning of plasma donations that enabled people to effectively manoeuvre through the challenging liminality in life during Covid-19 by expanding the existing literature of gifts and donation that highlights the rich, complex meanings of the body parts donated. It presents a vivid dialogue between liminality and gift-making from varied narratives.

A vital read for scholars, students of sociology, anthropology, and public health and those interested in how subjects reconstitute their agency amid uncertainty inside and outside the pandemic, so that we appreciate the voices of donors and learn from the lived experiences of those in this book.

Jae-Mahn Shim is Professor of Sociology at Korea University.

Seung-Hyun Baek is a Chief of Resource Mobilization & Public Relations Center at the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.