Emotions, Senses and Artifacts Related to Physical Distance during the COVID-19 Pandemic/Emociones, Sentidos y Artefactos Relacionados Con La Distancia Física Durante La Pandemia De Covid19

This session aims to call for research that articulates the emotional processes associated with the changes and modifications related to physical distance and the use of artifacts in the context of the pandemic caused by Covid-19. Global and state measures to deal with Covid 19 have been diverse. Some of these have been to promote physical distance between bodies and artifacts (for example, using a mask or digital platforms to continue with work, educational, academic, commercial, and recreational activities, among others). This has implied a reorganization of social encounters with a substantive emotional impact. The Covid-19 has forced us to transform the movement of our bodies and various forms of contact that involve different senses. These new proxemic norms (Hall, 1982), sensitive proximity (Simmel, 2009) or new territories of the self (Goffman, 2010), as well as the incorporation of artifacts into our social encounters (Latour, 2005), have had an emotional impact on various types of interaction, practices, and rituals. Due to the above, in this session, we want to invite researchers to share their reflections and research that address this emotional dimension of the pandemic associated with physical distance and the incorporation of new artifacts into the social encounter.

Goffman, Erving, (2010), Relations in Public. Microstudies of the Public Order. London & New York: Routledge

Hall, Edward, (1982), The Hidden Dimension. New York: Anchor

Latour, Bruno, (2005), Reassembling the Social An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: University Press.

Simmel Georg, (2009), Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms. Boston: Leiden.