A Resilient Approach to Social Solidarity During Covid-19. Evidence from Smart Communities in South African Cities

Abstract

Covid-19 exacerbated and brought to light some of the inequalities and vulnerable conditions of millions of people in the big metropoles of South Africa. The communities of Cape Town responded in a timely way to the risks associated with the pandemic to limit its dangerous potential and find solutions to support people in critical situations. These are due to existing critical medical conditions (TB and HIV rates), impossibility to practice physical distancing (particularly in the informal settlements of the cities), food insecurity related to poverty and increased rate of unemployment, lack of running water and hygiene possibilities, and potential violence increase (particularly related to gender). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions, particularly connected to the use of social media, allowed for deploying support respecting physical distancing as well as security and medical measures. At the same time, the solutions and approaches oriented to social solidarity amongst communities created the bases for reducing the social divide. The formation of networks of support which reached out for the needs of the most vulnerable people, proved to be problem solving oriented and succeeded in developing cooperative approaches that involved groups of people who have previously never encountered. Considering the still deep digital divide, Cape Town could not count on Smart Cities’ approaches to fight the pandemic, but it proved it could rely on Smart Communities responses. The case study displays the potential to use ICTs to connect, debate, suggest, and deploy solutions to respond in a resilient way to a crisis. The responses highlight the role of e-Participation from the bottom to combine solutions offered by ICT and reactivity and creativity of communities. The approaches further opened the way to the reduction of the social divide in one of the countries with the highest inequality rate in the world.