Covid-19 as an “invisible other” and socio-spatial distancing within a one-metre individual bubble

Abstract

Inspired by the social representation theory, the article embraces many aspects of the way in which the space dimension in social distancing has become a central measure for both one’s own and others’ health protection during the Covid-19 pandemic, evoking symbolic dimensions related to the social representations of “others” that are emotionally driven by fear or mirror the vulnerable self, activating the othering–otherness process. This invisible (sometimes stigmatized) “other”—never previously known—has in a few months infected more than 11 million people on the global scale and caused more than 500 thousands deaths (as of 30 June 2020: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/). It has dictated where we can go, whether and how we can work, and whom we can meet, induced the virtualization of social relationships (“neighbours from afar” and “together but divided”), and confined working and socio-recreational activities to the home. The socio-spatial prescriptive distancing assumes various meanings in cultural contexts depending on whether lifestyles are more collectivist or individualistic and whether social practices are marked by crowded social proximity or distance. The social representations of cities as complex systems of “places” conceived for social “coexistence” have moved to prescriptive rules of inter-individual spaces (1 m, 2 m, and even more) for “survival”, with significant effects on place identity.