A "Promise" of Proximity in Pandemic Times: Governing Urban Marginality in the Netherlands and France

Abstract

In early 2020, the world went into lockdown. New norms of social distancing and remote work were implemented in response to the Covid‐19 crisis. These appeared to challenge a key aspect of the current governance of urban marginality: proximity. This article asks how proximity, involving physical presence in the neighborhood and direct contact with urban residents, changed and remained the same during the pandemic and what that means for the governance of urban marginality beyond pandemic times. To answer this question, I draw on ethnographic research in marginalized neighborhoods in the Netherlands and France. Studying how local actors practiced proximity and responded to the pandemic, I found that Covid‐19 did not simply challenge proximate governance. While physical presence decreased, the pandemic instigated direct daily contact and community response and relief, albeit at a distance. Yet, the pandemic also exposed and aggravated existing difficulties in working "close by," particularly integrated approaches and civic engagement. The analysis, first, highlights the importance of daily contact beyond mere physical presence in the neighborhood, deepening current understanding of proximity in practice. Second, it demonstrates that local actors continuously negotiate community involvement, advancing understanding of civic engagement in proximate governance and the assumed inherent qualities and fixed nature of "the local." Third, it challenges the centrality of “the local” in urban governance, revealing the impact of a "far‐away" state on local actors' ability to improve living conditions in marginalized neighborhoods, in and beyond pandemic times.