Interview | Urban Media Archive

Stories of Quarantine

In April 2020 it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented epidemiological (and not only) experience for Ukraine and the whole world in the 21st century. Then Centre for Urban History, together with the Programs of Cultural Studies, Sociology and Master’s Program in History of the Ukrainian Catholic University set up a competition aiming at capturing this period in memories and reflections. It got the name “Quarantine Experiences.” There were more than two hundred e-mails and handwritten letters, where people contemplated the following topics:

Space: city/village/house/apartment during the quarantine. What was important and not important, accessible and inaccessible? What were the new opportunities and limitations? How did the sense of space change? What did distance and topography become?

Everyday life. Which activities remained the same and which changed? Which inventions and tricks helped me to cope with new challenges? What did lack the most and which lack it was easy to accept? How did people support others and feel their support? How did the family budget, the structure of expenses, and earnings change? What kind of emotions accompanied me during the day?

Creativity. What filled people’s free time? Who did they spend it with (close and at distance, together and separately)? How did the “online mode” and isolation influence the perception of artworks and cultural events, or personal creative practices? Which personal talents did people discover? How was it possible to create something together distantly? How was it possible to join group activities that made me happy?

The winning texts (as well as more than forty stories and fragments) became the basis for the book, which the competition team is working on together with the publishing house “Choven.” Along with that, we decided to create a sociological collection out of the received texts, a selection of cross-cutting topics raised in the stories and reflections. While choosing these topics (code branches) we started from three thematic areas, which the participants of our competition were invited to think about. Having read all the stories, we divided three initial areas into several categories, based on the reflections of our narrators. Therefore, the following code branches were formed:

SPACE

TIME

PRACTICES

EDUCATION

MOBILITY

RELATIONS

FEARS

OPPORTUNITIES

PERSONIFICATION

MATERIAL SITUATION

All the quotes are anonymous, the personal data about the narrators are limited to such data as gender, age, profession, location. In such a way this collection creates a kind of “collective experience” when in personal reflections everyone can find their own part. The separate file with contributors’ names is included into this collection.

The tree of codes was prepared by Natalia Otrishckenko, PhD in sociology, and Inga Kozlova, PhD in sociology and Associate Professor of Sociology in Ukrainian Catholic University, Head of Sociological Laboratory. The coding was performed by Inga Kozlova. The names of all the people, who told about their 2020 spring and summer experiences are available in a separate list. We are grateful to each and every one of them for their sincerity and willingness to share!

The development of this collection is supported by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen.