Techno-Politicizing Pandemic Scales: The Impacts of COVID-19 on the Interior of Southern Brazil

Abstract

Abstract This article contributes to an understanding of the multidimensional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through a reflection on the dimensions and scales involved in the dissemination and combat of the virus in two towns in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state. It draws on a sociotechnical timeline of the events that characterized the pandemic in the town of Picada Café during a pivotal moment-the so-called “first wave” from March to September 2020. Additionally, the article discusses the results of a socioeconomic survey conducted in October 2020 among small business owners in the towns of Picada Café and Nova Petrópolis. As COVID-19 sprawls through the farthermost hinterlands, the pandemic unveils how political, economic, and social predicaments in these areas differ from their urban counterparts. They deserve to be studied independently so as to promote more effective and target-driven public policy responses.