Bordering processes: the evolution of social borders in the time of pandemic

Abstract

The global pandemic outbreak, due to its nature of being transmitted through physical proximity, has created an immediate need for physical distancing and reinforcement of private and personal spaces of individuals. This need has caused a gigantic ‘kinopolitical’ event that has resulted in a drastic change in social, spatial and virtual borders. However, due to the sudden nature of this re-bordering of space, there has been a movement to virtual spaces to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and economical needs that were left unfulfilled. This has forced a greater permeability to virtual spaces of interaction - a kind of de-bordering. In this paper, we propose to examine the emerging consequences of changing social order in India and Bahrain from the lens of border theory. In the contexts of both countries, border theory has been used to offer insights into the following questions: - How can we analyze pandemic response strategies employed so far and identify the causes for their lack of success? - Who are the re-bordering and de-bordering processes serving and who are they excluding? - What needs to change with individual strategies that can make pandemic planning more inclusive? A qualitative approach has been used to analyze the newspaper coverage and the official announcements during the ongoing pandemic in India and Bahrain dating from March 2020 to September 2020. We shall conclude with the implications that analysis of pandemic response strategies through the lens of border theory, can have on restructuring our planning processes and developing frameworks in both countries