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
