Care and arrangements. The importance of attachment in the neighborhood in a pandemic context

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent experience of lockdown highlighted the centrality of care as an essential tool to guarantee people’s well-being. Despite hypermobility and globalization, the health crisis increased attachment to place as a material space for the development of social relations. The purpose of this research is to study the relevance of the local neighborhood as a physical space in which households, residents and the community organize their daily rutines and provide care. It is based on a qualitative analysis of more than 20 in-depth interviews in two neighborhoods of the city of Barcelona: Sant Antoni (Eixample) and Montbau (Horta-Guinardó). The results reveal the importance of proximity and the local neighbourhood for the provision of well-being. A sense of belonging to one’s neighborhood is developed, this being the space around which loyalties are formed and a shared social identity is built. The outbreak of COVID19 strengthened such bonds with and anchorage to the local neighborhood. The intensity of social relationships, home ownership and the level of satisfaction with social ties are aspects that consolidate this association with one’s neighborhood. However, these are not exempt from major challenges derived from recent changes to the urban fabric that have generated social fragmentation and the breaking of ties.