Paper short abstract:

COVID diaries of young urban women show how their concerns to avoid contagion have encouraged extensive reflection on personal responsibility but also highlight the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care in the household.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws principally from COVID diaries written by young women whom we had trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low income neighbourhoods of Abuja, Cape Town, prior to the pandemic. Some still live with parents or older extended family members, while others have children in their care, but concerns around maintenance of physical distancing to avoid contagion (and other potential penalties) have forced all to reflect to some degree on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices: whether/how much they need to travel [for work/income, food/water provisioning, family/social cohesion, religious observances; to allay boredom etc.] or can substitute virtual mobility for physical travel; which transport mode to take and when [walking, on public transport, or in private vehicles]; what precautions they and fellow travellers must take on the move; what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies - and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on the new pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing, mask wearing and sanitising practices to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds.