‘We also need to exist somehow’ – families negotiating everyday ethics during Covid-19 in Denmark

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore everyday ethical concerns associated with the Covid-19 lockdowns of Danish society as experienced by members of Danish middle-class families with one or more children living at home. Combining family theory with anthropological perspectives on ethics and morality, we discuss the pandemic’s ethical implications with a focus on the accentuation of family obligations and shared family practices during a societal crisis, and families’ attempts to navigate ethical dilemmas between family needs and societal norms. The quandaries described by our informants suggest that moral expectations intersect and sometimes collide in the face of societal crisis, accentuating the different roles and responsibilities ascribed to us respectively as citizens and kin. Hence, periods of crisis bring attention to the interplay between societal histories, family morals and everyday family practices.