Home, Shelter, Trap Experiences of Pandemic Con finement in Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

Drawing on data from two distinct ethnographic research projects, in this article I examine the equation of home, house, and security, as implied in the stay-at-home COVID-19 pandemic mandate. My investigation involving domestic workers in Bogotá revealed that the house is not necessarily a safe space and can sometimes even become a trap. Women's everyday lives are constrained by local labour dynamics, gender paradigms, socio-economic diff erentiation, and urban segregation, while their ontological security hinges on the proximity of close social relations. Meanwhile, research in social housing compounds demonstrates that the built environment can contribute positively to low-income residents' wellbeing. These socio-spatial contexts apparently fostered latent communal bonds that were activated during the pandemic crisis. Supported by feminist critique, which underscores the inseparable connection between the domestic and labour sphere, anthropological research that examines the diverse meanings of house and home urban research, elucidating the role of the built environment in our experience of ontological security, I argue that the home is not an independent cell, containing people within brick-and-mortar con fines. Instead, it emerges as a fluid, interlinked, and expansive realm, de fined by processes beyond the physical edi fice. To build more humane cities that off er ontological security and contribute to the wellbeing of all residents, a paradigm shift is imperative: one that situates this expanded concept of 'home' at the centre of conceiving living environments that not only accommodate, but also nurture interpersonal bonds.