Social Infrastructures in Times of Corona: Exploring the Ambiguities of Sociality, Practices, and Materiality

Abstract

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated public health measures continuously alter our everyday lives and routines. Here, we focus on social infrastructures of local provisions and the role they perform within cities under shutdown. Social infrastructures of local provisions such as supermarkets remained functional in Germany even during repeated shutdowns as they were perceived as essential for everyday life. Supermarkets hence turned from mundane sites of provision to sites where we could witness how infrastructures are deeply entangled with the microfoundations of urban social life. Based on auto-ethnographic accounts covering the period from March 2020 until May 2020, we explore how these spaces became primary sites through which to experience the changes caused by the pandemic. Writing from inner-city neighborhoods, we highlight the need to attend to the ambiguous role of design, objects, and materiality to adjust collective social practices and urban conviviality in the times of COVID-19.