Creating a New Normal? Technosocial Relations, Mundane Governance and Pandemic-Related Disruption in Everyday Life

Abstract

In many parts of the world, individuals and groups have managed significant disruptions prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article draws on data collected through interviews with 40 Australia-based participants regarding their day-to-day routines and technological engagement as they navigated mobility restrictions intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease. We use insights from Science and Technology Studies to shed light on how their technosocial relations enabled and regulated participants’ sociality while informing their desires for normalcy. Findings highlight perspectives and practices that diverge from popular framings of the pandemic as giving rise to a ‘new normal’. Instead, our analysis shows how human and non-human actors became inextricably linked in the management of everyday disruptions, illustrating forms of mundane governance. We conclude by reflecting on how Science and Technology Studies-informed approaches to the mundane glean important insight for the sociological study of the pandemic specifically and of everyday life generally.