The “Citizenship Effects” of Covid-19 Pandemic: Insights from the Italian Case

No doubt that Covid-19 pandemic has been a strong stress factor for citizenship device, both as a whole and in its components (belonging as legal and social status and as identity; rights and duties; participation). This was particularly evident during the emergency phase when, just to give some examples, the “place” of citizenship moved from public (squares, streets, clubs, etc.) to private spaces (homes); the residency became the base of citizenship status; the idea of a “community of fate” overtook the one of a “community of origins”; rights clashed with other rights (as in the case of health vs. mobility) while new rights emerged (as in the case of digital connections); the women’s status was put under discussion; public participation was transferred from offline to online environment. The strong changes in everyday, common life that took place during the emergency phase are likely to be gradually overcome, thanks to communities’ resilience. However, it should be considered that some stress situations could have produced structural changes in citizenship norms and practices, thus reshaping citizenship device as a whole. The paper aims at exploring these possible structural changes, in the framework of an ongoing Fondaca (www.fondaca.org) research project.