Open AccessFrom social distancing to social containment
Author(s) -
Nicholas J. Long
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
medicine anthropology theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2405-691X
DOI - 10.17157/mat.7.2.791
Subject(s) - social distance , sociality , containment (computer programming) , pandemic , existentialism , sociology , covid-19 , political science , environmental ethics , law , medicine , computer science , virology , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology , programming language , ecology , philosophy , outbreak
This essay develops an anthropological critique of ‘social distancing’. While the 2020 coronavirus pandemic requires us to reconfigure established forms of sociality, distancing regimes such as ‘lockdowns’ can profoundly disrupt the provision of care and support, creating practical difficulties and existential suffering. I advocate instead for strategies of ‘social containment’, outlining several of the containment arrangements people in England have developed to reconcile relational obligations with public health imperatives during the pandemic. I end by addressing some of the steps anthropologists must take when translating such ideas into policy.