Introduction

This introductory chapter sets the tenor of enquiry of the book by presenting the reader with an overview of the thematic elements that comprise its various chapters: value conflict, the post-Truth era, multilateral public value, vaccine nationalism, comparative public value, and public value in developing countries. The outline laid out in this chapter offers justifications for the scope of enquiry and argues for the usefulness of Covid-19’s context to inform the PV research in these areas. After reviewing the pertinent literature, the chapter argues that the book’s elements, whether taken as standalone explorations or as parts of a larger whole, help scholars to draw meaningful lessons from the pandemic’s context to inform public value theory (PVT), and conversely, they help to use PVT’s richness to explain the problems that confront societies during pandemics.