TY - JOUR
T1 - Everyday mobility practices and the ethics of care
T2 - Young women's reflections on social responsibility in the time of Covid-19 in three African Cities
AU - Porter, Gina
AU - Dungey, Claire
AU - Murphy, Emma
AU - Adamu, Fatima
AU - Dayil, Plangsat
AU - Lannoy, Ariane De
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK’s ESRC GCRF under grant [ES/S005099/1]. A preliminary version of the paper was presented at the UK Association of Social Anthropologists Conference, March 2021. Field research by Hadiza Ahmad, Saerom Han, Hamza Zaghdoud, Hanen Keskes, Mshelia Joseph Yahaya, Bululani Maskiti and Luntu Quntana in the wider project contributed to understanding of key issues further pursued in this paper. We are extremely grateful to the 18 young women who have participated as peer researchers, to the many respondents from the study communities and the wider transport sector, and to our Country Consultative Group members. We also wish to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This paper draws principally from COVID-19 diaries written by young women whom we had previously trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low-income neighbourhoods in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. Some live with parents or older extended family members, others have children in their care, but concerns around avoiding contagion have forced all peer researchers to reflect on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices. This includes whether/how much they need to travel or can substitute virtual for physical travel; which transport mode to take and when; what precautions they must take on the move; what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies–and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on these pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing and mask wearing to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds.
AB - This paper draws principally from COVID-19 diaries written by young women whom we had previously trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low-income neighbourhoods in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. Some live with parents or older extended family members, others have children in their care, but concerns around avoiding contagion have forced all peer researchers to reflect on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices. This includes whether/how much they need to travel or can substitute virtual for physical travel; which transport mode to take and when; what precautions they must take on the move; what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies–and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on these pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing and mask wearing to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127124402&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17450101.2022.2039561
DO - 10.1080/17450101.2022.2039561
M3 - Article
SN - 1745-0101
VL - 18
SP - 21
EP - 36
JO - Mobilities
JF - Mobilities
IS - 1
ER -