Social Distance

Feminists have long focused attention on the concepts of boundaries and safety. These central ideas take on new dimensions as we voluntarily curtail social contacts and as governments mandate closing key social institutions. How does community function in virtual spaces? What new socialities could we generate in this present moment? What systems of power and privilege structure who has the capacity to reach out for human connection virtually from the safety of a domestic sanctuary? Who can afford to make that retreat, and who must instead risk exposure, willingly or not? How do lived experiences of loneliness and isolation interact with other aspects of our social being, including the political? Can collective writing projects like this blog in fact help to preserve and reproduce the communities we desire?