Beyond renationalization

![CDATA[It seems almost a given of life and experience in the year since March 2020 that Covid-19 has confined people to national spaces. Border closures and travel restrictions were among the first reactions to the spread of Coronavirus and they remain in place in many parts of the world, often with no plan, timeline or clear criteria for their removal. Although the virus itself spread through global routes of trade, travel and commerce, its arrival spelt a crisis and reorganization of mobility. In the initial months of the pandemic, this reorganization took the form of a jolt. Flights were grounded, container ships were stuck at sea, people fled cities and supply chains were blocked. Lockdowns suddenly withdrew labour from workplaces, leading to an economic downturn that belied the notion that finance alone drives capitalism’s urge to accumulation. As time went on, a gradual adjustment began to meet demands for economic restabilization. The designation by governments of certain industries as essential contributed to get things flowing again, if only at the price of exposing workers in certain sectors to infection. Containers began to move through ports, office employees learned the niceties of Zoom etiquette, gig workers delivered food to urbanites in comfortable lockdown, platform economies and e-commerce thrived. However, border closures and travel restrictions remained in place, making them one of the most consistent features of governmental responses to the pandemic. Although exceptions were made, for instance to fly farm workers from Eastern Europe to the UK, most people around the world were restricted to national spaces. It is easy to see why the concept of renationalization is one frequently applied to political and everyday experience in the time of Covid-19.]]