A global study of the effect of COVID-19 on families.
COVID-19 turned the world as we knew it upside down, impacting families around the world in profound ways. Seeking to understand this global experience, Family in the Time of COVID brings together case studies from ten countries across the world that explore how local responses to the pandemic shaped and were shaped by understandings and practices of family life.
Carried out by an international team during the first year of the pandemic, these in-depth, longitudinal, qualitative investigations examined the impact of the pandemic on families and relationships across diverse contexts and cultures. They looked at how families made sense of complex lockdown laws, how they coped with collective worry about the unknown, managed their finances, fed themselves, and got to grips with online work and schooling to understand better how life had transformed (or not). In short, the research revealed their everyday joys and struggles in times of great uncertainty.
Each case study follows the same methodology revealing experiences in Argentina, Chile, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They show how local government responses were understood and responded to by families and how different cultures and life circumstances impacted everyday life during the pandemic. Ultimately the analysis demonstrates how experiences of global social upheaval are shaped by international and local policies, as well as the sociocultural ideas and practices of diverse families.
COVID-19 turned the world as we knew it upside down, impacting families around the world in profound ways. Seeking to understand this global experience, Family in the Time of COVID brings together case studies from ten countries across the world that explore how local responses to the pandemic shaped and were shaped by understandings and practices of family life.
Carried out by an international team during the first year of the pandemic, these in-depth, longitudinal, qualitative investigations examined the impact of the pandemic on families and relationships across diverse contexts and cultures. They looked at how families made sense of complex lockdown laws, how they coped with collective worry about the unknown, managed their finances, fed themselves, and got to grips with online work and schooling to understand better how life had transformed (or not). In short, the research revealed their everyday joys and struggles in times of great uncertainty.
Each case study follows the same methodology revealing experiences in Argentina, Chile, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They show how local government responses were understood and responded to by families and how different cultures and life circumstances impacted everyday life during the pandemic. Ultimately the analysis demonstrates how experiences of global social upheaval are shaped by international and local policies, as well as the sociocultural ideas and practices of diverse families.
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Table of Contents
List of figures List of tables Artist’s note about the cover image, Sabika Qaisar* List of contributors Acknowledgements Key terms and acronyms 1 Families and COVID-19: The beginning of our story Humera Iqbal, Charlotte Faircloth, Katherine Twamley and Rachel Benchekroun 2 Argentina: Gendered effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and the transformations in wellbeing Mariana de Santibañes and Gabriela Marzonetto 3 Chile: Pandemic, neoliberal precarity and social outbreak Ana Vergara del Solar, Mauricio Sepúlveda, Juan Pablo Pinilla, Daniela Leyton, Cristián Ortega and Claudia Calquín 4 Pakistan: Families in Karachi recalibrating care during COVID Safina Azeem, Shama Dossa, Asiya Jawed, Ayesha Khan, Mahnoor Mahar and Faiza Mushtaq 5 Russia: Life, learning and family agency under COVID-19 Maria Dobryakova, Elizaveta Sivak and Olesya Yurchenko 6 Singapore: Families living in and through the pandemic Vineeta Sinha, Pooja Nair, Ganapathy Narayanan and Daniel Goh 7 South Africa: COVID-19 and family well-being Sadiyya Haffejee, Anita Mwanda and Thandi Simelane 8 Sweden: Everyday family life during COVID-19 Disa Bergnehr, Laura Darcy and Annelie J Sundler 9 Taiwan: A unique trajectory of the pandemic as both blessing and curs Ching-Yu Huang, Fen-Ling Chen and An-Ti Shih 10 United Kingdom: Processes of inclusion and exclusion in personal life in response to COVID-19 public health measures Katherine Twamley, Humera Iqbal, Charlotte Faircloth and Nicola Carroll 11 United States of America: Polarisation, politicisation and positionality in COVID-19 policies and family practices Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Sophia L. Ángeles and Lu Liu 12 Family life in a time of crisis: Trust, risk, labour and love Charlotte Faircloth, Katherine Twamley and Humera Iqbal