Psychosocial well-being, policies, and the emotional boundaries of home

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced public interventions concerning citizens’ emotions. This paper delves into the associated policy discourse by examining the link between individual accounts of psychosocial well-being and their portrayal in public through policies and regulatory actions. The concept of emotional boundaries of home, elucidated through an analysis of citizen experiences during the initial year of the pandemic’s lockdowns, encompasses both material and affective dimensions of the home. These dimensions intertwine with emotions that traverse the private and public aspects of psychosocial well-being. The emotional boundaries of home highlight the ambivalence of policy interventions in either supporting or mitigating specific emotions. This ambivalence stems from associating these emotions more with individual and private realms than their intersection with material, spatial, or structural conditions, constituting a critical insight from the dataset. The findings emphasize the need to acknowledge how feelings are framed as private within policy discourse, advocating for a discourse that addresses the repercussions of such framing. By initiating this discussion, the article contributes to critical policy scholarship on emotions.