Blowing bubbles: COVID-19, New Zealand’s bubble metaphor, and the limits of households as sites of responsibility and care

Trnka, S.; Davies, S. G.

When New Zealand embarked on its COVID-19 lockdown, the world saw the emergence of a new social form: the “bubble.” This chapter examines bubbles for the social dynamics they enabled and elided, as well as for what the bubble metaphor suggested but did not always deliver. During level 4 lockdown, most New Zealanders (with exceptions such as essential service workers) were restricted to physical contact with members of their residence - a social unit the government referred to as the members of one’s “home, " “household, " or “bubble.” Not all care relations can, however, be reduced to a single home or household, nor are all households units of care. Regulations enabling bubble expansions in specific circumstances provided some means of addressing care needs that superseded households (e.g., singletons becoming “bubble buddies” to mitigate loneliness). But little was done for those consigned to bubbles whose members were unattached to one another, much less antagonistic. There is thus a need for bubble regulations to match more closely the flexibility inherent in the bubble as a concept when planning for future crises. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, J. Michael Ryan;individual chapters, the contributors.