Affective geographies in pandemic times: An intersectional analysis of women's wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This article builds upon and extends a growing body of literature focused on how the pandemic has shifted human relations with space, place, and wellbeing. Working at the intersection of pandemic and feminist geographies, we focus on how the reconceptualizing of familiar spaces and places during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted women's embodied, affective, and subjective experiences of wellbeing. Drawing upon interviews with 38 women from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds living in Aotearoa New Zealand during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we detail the emergence of different spatial arrangements and affective relations with familiar spaces and places (i.e., domestic, nature, and digital spaces). We then explain how these emergent affective and spatial relations prompted new understandings of wellbeing. The article also highlights the multiplicities of women's subjective experiences of wellbeing as shaped by their varied socio-cultural positionings in relation to pandemic geographies.