"What’s Home Gotta Do With It?": Reflections on Homing, Bordering, and Social Distancing in COVID-19 Times

Abstract

As the lockdown to contain Covid-19 is being eased in many countries and as international travel will soon be possible again, I have the necessary distance to reflect upon what has happened in the past three months. In the hopes of ‘flattening the curve,’ we have been asked to stay home and to erect borders between ‘us’ and ‘others.’ ‘Social distancing’ has become the new buzzword. All of a sudden, we have started to hide behind the walls of our homes and we have become surrounded by borders, which now start on the thresholds of our doorsteps, extend to workplaces, cities, regions, states, and nations. How to make sense of this new ubiquity of borders? What about the new role of home turned workplace, kindergarten, school, and site of leisure activities (all at the same time)?