Local communities of care solve best – they support kids, the elderly, inspire the best aspects of human nature, and free us from the cage of governmentality

This local community also took a digital form. There was an extraordinary com- munity response, often spontaneous and bottom-up, as Facebook pages or WhatsApp groups based on neighbourhoods were set up. Neighbours called on elderly or shield- ing people and set up telephone networks. This kind of response was found in many of the diaries. In North-East Scotland, The Grampian Hub, coordinated police, local authority, emergency and other services including NGOs such as the Red Cross and volunteers. It involved 350 groups and 4000 individuals. Police officers were rede- ployed to staff telephone lines and put people in touch with relevant local services. Around 9000 people were supported with food boxes, shopping, prescription collection and so on (from a population of around 500 000). Indeed, there were many more volunteers than were needed by a ratio of about three volunteers offering themselves for each one needed in this area (from interviews with community leaders). However, rather than being just another example of “governmentality at a distance” it represented a spontaneous eruption of altruism and generosity. We could see it as opening 13 Governmentality Versus Community: The Impact of the COVID. a “space” for horizontal communications within the closing walls of the governmentality prison. In a village in Scotland, where SC lived, a “community hub” was organised through social media and coordinated by the resident Church of Scotland minister. This involved organising volunteers on a street-by-street basis delivering services such as prescription collection, shopping and dog walking. Twice as many people volunteered to help as needed, so most were never called upon. The community hub also organised a local food bank for those who needed it in the Church Hall and this included clothes, toilet paper, children’s games, plants and other things that might be in short supply donated by members of the local community. The local Facebook page expanded its membership and its remit from just being for “parents in the village” to including a much wider community and many more people now called the “Village Community Group”. Local social media sites became the way in which information was spread rapidly across the community. Local businesses were able to advertise their lockdown services in this way. With a population of 2700, the village community FB page attracted 2893 members - so the social media site was even big- ger than the community’s population. Whilst this formal style of horizontal organisation was built upon existing church and food bank structures, in other countries this generosity took a more informal turn. The Spanish diarist noticed: We have seen lots of very small initiatives (at neighbourhood level) to help the elderly with their shopping, holding conversations over the phone, etc. I think you get a sense of how fragile ageing is. ES also mentioned the informal support that blossomed in the residential blocks as healthier and younger people cared for older ones. SK noted that whilst in her residential neighbourhood, there had been interaction among neighbouring children, this disappeared with lockdown and local relationships dwindled to the next-door neigh- bour. Nevertheless, SK baked and delivered cakes to a neighbour during the period of stringent lockdown, by leaving them outside the door. In both Spain and Slovakia small acts of kindness were mentioned in relation to children’s birthdays. In Spain, ES describes collective (socially distanced) singing in the neighbourhood as people gathered on their doorstops to express birthday wishes. It’s very difficult to go through grim days sometimes but the 8pm applause always cheers me up, such an amazing singing of unexpected and improvised “neighbourliness”. This evening we all sang happy birthday to a young girl from the block in front. Our participant in China mentioned the activities of local restaurants delivering take away services, as happened also in many European cities. In the Scottish village, a local butcher provided a ready-made meals service for those who could not get out, which volunteers delivered. In the UK, Muslim and Hindu communities rallied similarly around their members. 13 Even under normal circumstances, neighbourhoods are traditionally more important for certain categories of people such as children and older people, who might be more locally restricted. Many of the children use the same playgrounds and attend the same kindergartens and primary schools locally. Parents in a locality might form clothes and toys exchanges, reinforcing these connections. This certainly seemed to be the case in the suburbs of Bratislava, where SK tells us: On Sunday I really had an urge to demonstrate our existence. I suggested to Jan that he draws a picture for Misha, his best friend neighbour. He drew a car...... put it in their mailbox. A great reason to leave the house! Misha loved it. So Jan drew another four pictures (cars and dinosaurs). In the meantime I baked a cake, so I packed some of it, and we went to give it to them. I also promised to another neighbour that I will share with her my old pregnancy clothes...... We just left it in front of the door, with some cake and strawberries. We exchanged messages via WhatsApp – she loves the clothes! I felt good. Perhaps because of the localism of children’s play networks, mothers in the neighourhood tended to organise into support and exchange groups under COVID conditions too. Some participants mentioned WhatsApp groups being created amongst local mothers to enable this. This reassertion of horizontal ties at a local level helped to create a “space” for social action. Diarists described how more people spent more time in the local community and the streets and walking paths were full of people walking, cycling or socialising (at a distance). The absence of traffic helped this, and social media shared information about new walks and features of the surrounding areas. Passed a group of people chatting (at a social distance) in the middle of the street. Normally it would not be possible due to all the cars (SC) Altogether then, local neighbourhoods were reinvented as arenas of social life. This might always have been the case for children, this was also increasingly the case for adults who could no longer go anywhere else. Furthermore, the neighbourhood became a focus of self-help organisation during the lockdown facilitated through social media. Even in China, the most repressive and controlling regime there was room to develop horizontal connections. Here, the courtyard acted as the focus of micro- social life. Our diarist (who was German) described the courtyards in the communal apartment blocks as becoming important meeting places: The courtyard is the place to meet other kids (some from the same kindergarten) and parents, the latter is also a relief for us as our social contacts are rather reduced now with some of our friends having old parents to take care of and thus keeping to themselves; others generally being more cautious than we are. The atmosphere in the courtyard is quite special and communal – more talk than usual. 13 C. Wallace et al. Governmentality Versus Community: The Impact of the COVID. Many people mentioned the importance of going for walks locally, interacting with neighbours outsides and enjoying the natural environment, including parks, woods, hills and cemeteries. Life slowed down and became more leisurely: The amount of sharing on our road of the most random of things has been lovely. It also seems that when people are out they are not as absorbed by their phones as they were previously. People are looking up and enjoying being outside as opposed to just scrolling as they walk. I suppose we are all enjoying being outside and immersing ourselves in the experience in a way that didn’t happen before (EN2). Lots of virtual support. Got to know lots more of my neighbours as a result. Very nice community feel to it and made some good friends. People sharing things on the community group. People seem more present when they’re outside dur- ing lockdown. Shift from no contact with strangers to lots more general friendly chat. (SE2)