Local and personal communities of care work – COVID proves

We have raised the question of whether community represented an alternative to the increased governmentality of the coronavirus pandemic. The answer, based upon a small and specialised group of academics, suggests that whilst national community was strongly reinforced, and local communities did to some extent take over the surveillance of their members, the new kinds of local mobilisation also opened up spaces for horizontal lines of communication which went beyond simply an extension of governmentality. Compassionate communities emerged. However, these responses were very uneven across society, maybe reinforcing the advantage of already well organised localities. At the level of personal communities, the kind of surveillance taking place was supportive rather than repressive, although the limitations of digital communication may have limited the range of social connections and prevented the emergence of genuine critical discussion that comes with face-to-face communications