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.

Contamination fear in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: A moderated mediation quasi-experimental model of the effect of disgust on outgroup bias towards diaspora

“…As recent studies suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic posed a particular contamination threat, given the lack of visible symptoms in many cases (de Rosa & Mannarini, 2021) this further supports our results on passive aggression, rather than active aggression, and the social representation of "others" as a representation of the virus itself.…”

“…As the virus cannot be recognized through racial elements, nor through visible symptomsgiven that some of the persons infected are asymptomaticall these elements would lead to a different kind of 'otherness', recently named "invisible other", manifested among others through objectification (i.e. transforming the abstract into an image, materializing the 'invisible enemy') (de Rosa & Mannarini, 2021).…”

Sensemaking Processes during the First Months of COVID-19 Pandemic: Using Diaries to Deepen How Italian Youths Experienced Lockdown Measures

“…With reference to this, they talked about a "bubble feeling", an expression that recalls what Hall [42] defined as the proximity space around individuals not accessible at will by everyone. Thus, this expression condenses the need to keep distance from others to avoid contagion and to comply with the mandatory measures issued by local and National Institutions and health authorities, but it also expresses the stemming experiences of isolation, loneliness, and fear generated by these COVID-19-related measures [43,44].…”

Making sense of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative longitudinal study investigating the first and second wave in Italy

“…Disaster research shows that the awareness of being part of a "community of fate" and the emergence of shared identities are crucial for collective and proactive responses (Drury et al, 2019). de Rosa and Mannarini (2021) argue that in a pandemic situation, only if social embeddedness and a sense of connectedness is maintained can communities adopt social norms and behaviours which are functional in the containment of the outbreak and face the collective emergency. This argument is supported also by recent studies (Bargain & Aminjonov, 2020;Borgonovi and Andrieu, 2020) highlighting how communities with high levels of social capital socially distanced and reduced mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic more than communities with low levels of social capital.…”