Paper short abstract:

This paper presents preliminary results of a multi-method action-research that aims to tackle health inequalities in the city of Bologna. From an anthropological perspective, it focuses on inequalities produced by the pandemic and public responses (formal and informal) put in place to address them.

Paper long abstract:

Covid-19, as a ‘global social fact’, was a disruptive event, leaving no part of society untouched. However, several studies show that the impact of the pandemic is unequal and the harshest consequences have been on already marginalized people. From an anthropological perspective, this paper discusses health inequalities exacerbated and/or produced by the pandemic in 3 neighborhoods of the city of Bologna (Italy), as well as interventions and practices arranged that appear to promote equity and collective health. Data were collected within an action-research project (2017-ongoing) that combines epidemiological and ethnographic methods with the aims to know the distribution of inequalities in the city and to support actions to tackle them. Results show how the virus and the measures for its containment have affected the most vulnerable social groups (informal workers, single-parent families, etc.), while producing new forms of vulnerability (people more exposed to infection for work reasons). The difficulties in leveling out these inequalities through institutional response seem attributable to deep and historical gaps of our welfare and healthcare systems. Data also shows how, particularly during the first pandemic wave and its protracted lockdown, there were unprecedented forms of activation on the part of citizens and some healthcaresectors, illustrating some potential of the current public institutions. A focus will be devoted to the ways in which proximity has been rethought by the social, health and welfare services, thus to the related consequences in relation to the different segments of the local population.