Abstract

Lay constructions of risk impact upon public health activities and underpin social reactions to experiences and understandings of infectious diseases. In this article, we explore the social construction of COVID-19 risk and responsibility by citizens of Jakarta and the Greater Jakarta Area, Indonesia. We draw upon digital diaries produced each week by 37 participants across a 5-week period from April to June 2020, a time of substantial policy flux in Indonesia. Key findings reflect the everyday construction of risk within the context of changing government restrictions regarding physical distancing. In the context of perceived confusion around government activity, the participants narrated individualised accounts of risk production, as they reflected upon the transmission of COVID-19. Our findings indicate the emergence of the concept of the ‘ignorant imagined other’ as underpinning how lay persons locate risks in unknowledgeable others and see themselves as socially protected through their own perceived knowledgeability of COVID-19. Our findings contribute to the literature on the social perception of infectious disease through the examination of the understudied context of urban Indonesia and by demonstrating the social location of risk in relation to a generalised imagined other, within a wider context of public health governance.

摘要

构建风险对公共卫生活动的影响，并支持社会对传染病经验和理解的反应。在本文中，我们探讨了印度尼西亚雅加达和大雅加达地区公民对 COVID-19 风险和责任的社会建构。我们利用 37 名参与者在 2020 年 4 月至 2020 年 6 月的 5 周期间每周制作的数字日记，这是印度尼西亚政策大幅波动的时期。主要发现反映了在政府对保持社交距离的限制不断变化的背景下，风险的日常构建。在对政府活动感到困惑的背景下，参与者叙述了风险产生的个性化描述，因为他们反映了 COVID-19 的传播。我们的研究结果表明，“无知的想象中的他人”这一概念的出现支持了外行人如何在无知的他人身上定位风险，并通过他们自己对 COVID-19 的感知知识将自己视为受到社会保护的人。我们的研究结果通过对印度尼西亚城市未充分研究的背景进行检查，并通过在更广泛的公共卫生治理背景下展示与普遍想象的其他人相关的风险的社会定位，为有关传染病社会认知的文献做出了贡献。