Blog | Networks

Talja Blokland, Daniela Krüger and Robert Vief ask how the political measures to slow down the coronavirus reduce our opportunities for support, as they are regulating how we socialize and communicate. Drawing on representative survey results from four neighborhoods in Berlin, they show that, before the lockdown, a majority of their respondents communicated face-to-face to confront their most pressing personal challenges and did so outside of their home. They argue that reducing human contact to digital exchanges may affect our wellbeing and cannot replace meeting each other

The spread of coronavirus since early 2020 has put many of us at home. Suddenly, the streams of bustling mobility across the globe have stopped. In this blog post, Ayham Dalal reflects on how transportation and mobility re-figured the world. Tracing their impact in the formation of unequal and asymmetric geographies, he puts two less-visible worlds in conversation with each other: “overly connected” and “overly isolated” ones. Using his personal experience of transiting between both, the article aims to show how the global growth and expansion of mobility networks privileged some and hindered others, thus producing unequal geographies and distorted imaginaries. In this historical moment, the article addresses the impact of extensive mobility on the re-figuration of spaces and urges to revisit the potentials of dwelling as counter-practice for a more just and livable future.