Homely Orderings in Times of Stay-At-Home Measures

Abstract

Abstract The stay-at-home measures imposed by governments to counteract the COVID-19 pandemic have drawn attention to the domestic sphere. Besides spending much more time at home in general, people also required the private sphere to fulfill multiple functions, including as workplaces, schools, and fitness centers. Within a qualitative social research framework, the paper examines how people in Vienna, Austria re-ordered their homes during lockdowns to address these challenges. We discuss ordering work as a form of care work regarding the home’s conception, realization and maintenance, and understand the home as being produced in and through practices, including ordering practices. In particular, we are interested in whether and how ordering practices gained higher significance during the pandemic, and in how—by reordering their homes—people re-negotiated their social relations and the inequalities connected to care work and the home.