The multiple intensities of COVID-19 space-times

The global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in multiple intersecting intensities of space, time and power relations. For many, the dialectic processes of intensification and prolongation have characterised the experience of periods of government-mandated emergency restrictions. Power relations intensified at scales ranging from the state level to (shifting) workspaces and the intimate spaces of homes and domestic violence. Governmental responses (or lack of response) to the pandemic had geopolitical and biopolitical implications e.g. through border closures, ‘shelter at home’ directives, limited provision for refugees, prisoners and the homeless, and both draconian and laissez-faire regulation of risk. Combined, Covid-related health risks and associated governmental responses (or lack of response) also created new or enhanced situated experiences of housing, work, personal, food, social and mental health precarity; these precarities were often multilayered and reflected intersectional inequalities, especially for the poorest in society. Social and cultural geographies represent a wide-ranging sub-discipline. As the name implies, it brings social topics such as employment, wealth, inequalities housing, migration, gender and race-ethnicity, into dialogue with more culturally facing topics such as identity, community, consumption, emotion and affect, ritual practices, art, representations and landscapes. Moreover, using a geographical lens, these topics are investigated in and in relation to specific spatialities, spatial practices and environments. This affords situated studies of the effects of the pandemic on individuals and social-cultural groups, not least those experiencing multiple intersectional burdens. Further, ‘As socio-economic, cultural, and political relations are being reconfigured as a result of the pandemic, geographers have an opportunity to provide analyses and critiques, and identify good practices and mechanisms for change that can inform practice and policy-making’ as well as collective actions that challenge inequalities, including entrenched racial injustice and violence. Ultimately, ‘COVID-19 presents opportunities for social and cultural geographers to evidence obscured or ignored geographical inequalities and agencies, capitalising on the increased attention given to issues of social justice engendered by the pandemic, as well as to work collaboratively with practitioners and policymakers to make a difference in a world impacted by Covid-19’ (Ho and Maddrell 2021: 7). The empirically rich papers presented here evidence the value of the research questions, methods and analyses and the ensuing insights of social-cultural geographies, including those of political-policy import. For essential workers, especially those working in critical health and social care, hours of work and the associated risks, physical, intellectual and emotional labour involved, all intensified in the first phase of the pandemic. While for those experiencing unemployment, furlough, working from home and/or home schooling (giving and receiving) experienced intensification of family life and living-working space; and time-space compression (Harvey, 1989), typically associated with the transcendence of distance, was wrought in new ways on the microscale of unsuspecting homes and households. Often ill-equipped/prepared for SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 2023, VOL. 24, NOS. 3–4, 385–390 https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2023.2177718