PROXEMICS, COVID-19, AND THE ETHICS OF CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Public Health
• Ethics

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns in South Africa have raised critical questions regarding the ethics of care.
• Existing societal inequalities and historical contexts, such as apartheid, influence the delivery and meaning of care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the limitations of an ethics of care in the context of South African lockdown measures.
• To explore how proxemics and physical distancing reveal and exacerbate everyday inequalities.
• To analyze the implications of public health measures on the provision of care.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of an ethics of care framework.
• Examination of proxemics and the operationalization of distance.
• Analysis of public health policies and their social impact in South Africa.

Main Results:

• An ethics of proxemics, particularly the enforcement of physical distance, highlights and perpetuates existing inequalities.
• Public health measures for coronavirus containment mirror historical control mechanisms, demonstrating embodied and legally entrenched inequality.
• The study reveals how physical distancing limits the provision of care and questions whose ethics of care are privileged.

Conclusions:

• Physical distancing measures, while intended for public health, can reinforce social stratification and limit equitable care.
• The South African context demonstrates a complex interplay between public health, ethics of care, and historical inequalities.
• Rethinking care requires addressing the embodied and legally entrenched nature of inequality.