Life under lockdown: Notes on Covid‐19 in Silicon Valley

This article is a preliminary exploration of the effects of Covid‐19 in Silicon Valley, one of three pandemic ‘hotspots’ on America’s west coast. In particular, it describes how the crisis has deepened and magnified social and economic inequalities in a region where poverty, homelessness and gentrif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnthropology today Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 11 - 15
Main Authors GONZÁLEZ, ROBERTO J., MARLOVITS, JOHN
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2020
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Subjects
COVID-19
Economic inequality
Environmental conditions
Epidemics
Gentrification
Homeless people
Infectious diseases
Meaning
Mitigation
Original
Pandemics
Poverty
Profits
Social inequality
Technology
United States > US
Silicon Valley-California
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Summary:This article is a preliminary exploration of the effects of Covid‐19 in Silicon Valley, one of three pandemic ‘hotspots’ on America’s west coast. In particular, it describes how the crisis has deepened and magnified social and economic inequalities in a region where poverty, homelessness and gentrification are rife. Despite the fact that many technology firms are reaping massive profits in the wake of ‘shelter in place’ orders, many Silicon Valley workers have lost their jobs and are struggling to cope with the consequences of Covid‐19. The article also analyzes the different meanings of ‘lockdown’ by comparing examples from China, Brazil, Taiwan and the United States. The authors conclude that anthropologists have a significant role to play in helping to understand how and why communicable diseases emerge, the underlying social and environmental conditions that fuel them and cross‐cultural strategies for the effective mitigation of epidemics and pandemics.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0268-540X
1467-8322
DOI:10.1111/1467-8322.12574