‘The air is a little too dangerous’: how children navigate between rules and risks in times of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding government measures to prevent the spread of infection have affected children living in socially disadvantaged urban areas in distinctive ways. While their role and responsibility concerning contagion risks are subject to debate, the regulations impact their lives in multiple areas, including peer interactions, family life and education. Understanding their perception and navigation of pandemic risks is therefore crucial to supporting coping strategies and to fostering self-protective behaviour. By employing the concepts of social navigation and emotion – risk assemblage, this study provides a novel perspective on these children’s assessment and management of contagion risks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a qualitative field study conducted at two elementary schools in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods in two different cities in Germany, I show how children negotiated risk through interaction with bodies, places and materials they classified as risky or protective, and how their risk construction was shaped by social and cultural processes. I further demonstrate that uncertainties, such as contradictory information, or desires, like security and freedom, led the participants to lean on combined rational and non-rational tactics. Finally, I demonstrate how situational adjustment of risk assessment and rule adherence became a navigational tactic that allowed the children to balance safety and liberty within an environment of constant change.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• risk assessment
• risk management
• social navigation
• child participatory research

Acknowledgements

I am extraordinarily grateful to Carola Tize and Prof. Dr. Ria Reis for their invaluable expertise in supervising my master’s thesis. Furthermore, I would like to give my special regard to the protagonists of this research: the children and their families. I owe the success of this work in large part to your commitment. I would also like to express my gratitude to the teachers and headmasters for their commitment to my research despite these already challenging times.

I report that there are no competing interests to declare. No funds have been received for this research. Editorial support, in the form of copyediting and referencing, was provided by Proofed Inc. This assistance was funded privately by the author. All interview transcripts have been translated from German to English by the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.