RE-CONSTRUCTING BELONGING: A Community Response to COVID-19

Authors

  • Penny Robinson Penny'sWorth, Drews Ave, Whanganui

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id469

Keywords:

Key words, Belonging, neighbourhood, photography, suburbs, Covid 19

Abstract

 This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on belonging in a provincial Aotearoa-New Zealand town during lockdown. Drawing on the observation of suburban neighbourhood practices, it is grounded in qualitative methods and uses the metaphors of rhizome and web to understand and describe belonging.
The advent of COVID-19 and subsequent political directives led to the 2020
lockdown, precipitating changes observed variously through inscription, inter/action within built and natural environments, embodiment, emplacement and movement, and/or gained through shared and/or common experiences.
This paper concludes that changes observed in practices demonstrated the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on neighbourhood belonging. The prolonged period of closely-bounded containment led people to re/create, expand, deepen or maintain not only local but also national and global belonging.

Author Biography

Penny Robinson, Penny'sWorth, Drews Ave, Whanganui

Graduated PhD Social Anthropology Massey University Palmerston North 2006. Operate my own business, Penny'sWorth in Whanganui recording and writing social histories, life stories and conducting other research.

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Published

15-08-2022

How to Cite

Robinson, P. (2022). RE-CONSTRUCTING BELONGING: A Community Response to COVID-19. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 18(1), 124–156. https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id469