Foundational economy and healthcare services : what the Covid-19 emergency tells us

This paper introduces the FSE special session 'Healthcare, Covid-19 and the Foundational Economy', which uses the Foundational Economy (FE) approach to analyze the public health crisis determined by Covid-19. First, the paper briefly presents the FE approach, which consists of two macro-areas. The former, identified as a 'material' foundational economy, comprises the supply of basic goods and services (Le. water, electricity, gas, food or banking). The latter, defined as a 'providential' foundational economy, comprises services traditionally covered by welfare policies and indispensable to our lives, including healthcare. Subsequently, the introduction illustrates the contributions of the special session, which includes articles on France, Italy, Spain, the US as well as a comparative analysis of the Covid-19 impact in Europe. In presenting these papers, the introduction shows how the FE concepts and methodological tools are relevant and extremely useful to analyze the public health pandemic crisis and its causes.