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Article published In: Chronotopes and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Edited by Anna De Fina and Sabina M. Perrino
[Language, Culture and Society 4:2] 2022
► pp. 136–161

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(Re)chronotopizing the pandemic

Migrant domestic workers’ calls for social change

 | City University of Hong Kong
Published online: 29 November 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.22001.cat
Abstract
In this article I apply the notions of chronotope and (re)chronotopization to the case of grassroots, migrant domestic worker (MDW) led activism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. I compare the chronotopes that are produced by the Hong Kong government with those produced by migrant-led organizations to understand how migrants are marginalized and how they resist this marginalization. More specifically, I show how the spatiotemporal configurations of “home,” “days off,” and “the time of COVID-19 in Hong Kong” are rechronotopized – that is, reimagined, remoralized and rematerialized – through the discourses and actions of these grassroots organizations. I use this data and analysis to reflect on how the notion of rechronotopization can account for the social processes involved in activism more broadly; and to draw attention to the dialectic relationship between differently scaled chronotopic materialities and morally loaded chronotopic imaginaries.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Applying a theory of (re)chronotopization to social transformation
    • 2.1(Re)chronotopization as an outcome of chronotopic dialectics
    • 2.2Spatiotemporal imaginaries and materialities
  • 3.Migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong
  • 4.Data, methods and positioning
  • 5.Rechronotopizing the space-time of COVID-19 in Hong Kong
    • 5.1Together, we fight the virus!
    • 5.2Let’s fight COVID!
    • 5.3Calling for a more moral Hong Kong
    • 5.4Organizing and speaking out for rematerialization
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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