Talking while walking but not with the locals: Social support and domesticity in public space before and during COVID-19 in Berlin, Germany

Abstract

ABSTRACT How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the spatiality of social support? Did people turn to local ties when they were requested to stay at home, and what impact has this had on the public life of neighborhoods? This paper explores these questions using survey data collected in four neighborhoods in Berlin, Germany, in 2019 and 2020. We show that people received more support in their neighborhoods—but not necessarily from their neighbors. They left their residences more often to digitally contact others in local public spaces. The COVID-19 restrictions in Berlin increased the importance of neighborhoods understood as openly accessible space. Drawing on Lofland’s idea of realms, we argue that this increase may be read as an intensified privatization of public space, as people left their homes to communicate with others on their digital devices, creating a growing sense of domesticity outdoors.