What can be learned about pandemic preparedness from greater attention to perspectives of people who live in regions labelled as ‘hotspots’ for disease outbreaks? And how might such attention require us to reconfigure science, policy, and practice – as part of a broader shifting of power in pandemics? These are the questions that motivate and are explored through the papers in this special issue on pandemic preparedness, for which this paper serves as Introduction. All the contributions to this