The amount of living space we have access to is one manifestation of the unequal distribution of housing resources within societies. The COVID-19 pandemic has required most households to spend more time at home, unmasking inequalities and reigniting longstanding debates about the functionality and experience of smaller homes. Drawing on interviews across three UK cities, this article attends to the changing household routines of individuals living in different types of small home, exploring daily life before and during ‘lockdown’. Using the concept of urban rhythms, the data show that the lockdown has intensified existing pressures of living in a smaller home – lack of space for different functions and household members – whilst constraining coping strategies, like spending time outside the home. Lockdown restrictions governing mobility and contact acted as a mechanism of exception, disrupting habitual patterns of life and sociability, and forcing people to spend more time in smaller homes that struggled to accommodate different functions, affecting home atmospheres. For some, the loss of normal strategies was so significant that they sought to challenge the new rules governing daily life to protect their wellbeing.
我们所能获得的居住空间的大小是社会内部住房资源分配不平等的一种表现。新冠肺炎大流行迫使大多数家庭花更多时间呆在家里,这凸显了住房不平等问题,并重新点燃了关于狭小住宅的功能和体验方面的长期争论。基于在英国三个城市开展的访谈,本文关注生活在不同类型的狭小住宅里的个人不断变化的常规,探讨了“封锁”之前和封锁期间的日常生活。利用城市节奏的概念,我们的数据显示封锁加剧了居住在狭小住宅(缺乏足够的空间满足不同功能和不同家庭成员的需要)中的个人的既有压力,同时限制了应对策略(如在户外度过时间)的应用。限制行动和联系的封锁措施形成了一种例外机制,扰乱了习惯性的生活和社交模式,迫使人们在各类功能捉襟见肘的狭小住宅内度过更多时间,家庭氛围也因此受影响。对一些人来说,无法执行通常策略所带来的损失是如此巨大,以至于他们试图挑战新的日常生活管理规则以保护自己的福祉。