Anti-coronas and germophobic neurotics: rationalising choices to use or not use public transport during the pandemic

Abstract

The paper adds to the growing literature that considers how COVID-19 has impacted on public transport. It reports on a focus group study in Denmark with both users and non-users of public transport during the pandemic. Focus group participants were asked to talk about and explain their everyday transport mode choices. Whereas the study was based on the assumption that ‘fear of transmission’ would have come to represent a readymade rationalisation resource for people to use to justify if they do not want to use public transport, the participants consistently resisted to rationalise their mode choice-decisions with reference to ‘fear of contagion’. The paper considers if this resistance can be understood as an example of a tension between more governmental and biopolitical governance strategies and more disciplinary governance strategies in liberal societies during the pandemic. It offers a detailed analysis of how participants pre-empt the relevance of risk of contagion for their travel decisions in focus group interaction, and it concludes suggesting its findings indicate a little-explored domain: It appears as if passengers cannot admit to ‘fear of contagion’ without risking appearing incapable of governing themselves in line with liberal governmentalities, thus potentially subjecting themselves to more disciplinary interventions.