key: cord-0866902-45g8ebqz
authors: Hall, Sarah Marie
title: Care, COVID‐19 and crisis: Area as a space for critical contributions
date: 2021-02-27
journal: Area (Oxf)
DOI: 10.1111/area.12702
sha: eb90a911ffe4824fb193a7228d1abb6362448729
doc_id: 866902
cord_uid: 45g8ebqz

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task felt too enormous (how to write about COVID-19 and care and academia?) and it was my first Area editorial as the newest member of the team. When I had time set aside to write, it got swallowed up by urgent teaching, administration, and supervision tasks (as is often the case). When I did write, it was squeezed between meetings with my laptop balanced on books or propped on the ironing board because of the logistics of working at home, with little space, with a partner also working (loudly!) at the same time. Also, I am really grateful to all those who responded to my slightly desperate Twitter shout-out on a Friday afternoon mid-December asking for suggested readings (thanks again to those who repliedyou saved my bacon). Nonetheless, I realise the inherent irony of writing an editorial about the impact of pandemic on academic life when time and energy for writing and research are scarce for many.

We are also mindful that responding to COVID-19 as editors also requires a longer-term perspective, and many of the changes mentioned above will remain in place. Even when the pandemic is "over," it has highlighted issues that are difficult to resolve. Area is committed to being a space for critical contributions about the experiences and impacts of COVID-19 on all elements of geographical work. We encourage rich empirical papers, detailed commentaries and crafted special sections that explore researching the COVID-19 crisis, teaching during a pandemic, and crisis-related praxis, impact, and engagement, cutting across the spectrum of Geography (see Geoghegen et al., 2020) . Area is also a space for methodological discussions, as Alan Latham noted in his previous editorial, for thinking with method (Latham, 2020) , as well as for reflexive pieces via our dedicated Ethics section. And, above all, we want to ensure that Area is a space for listening to the voices of our readers and authors, being open to feedback and creating new possibilities when they are needed most.

University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Academia in the time of COVID-19: Our chance to develop and ethics of care. Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability

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Childcare and academia: An intervention. International Development Planning Review

Teaching social research methods in a time of crisis. The Sociological Review. Retrieved from www.thesociologicalreview.c om/teaching-social-research-methods-in-a-time

Thinking with method: qualitative research in human geography

Unequal and invisible: A feminist political economy approach to valuing women's care labour in the COVID-19 response

Radical care as the foundation for a better world. The Sociological Review. Retrieved from www.thesociological review.com/radical-care-as-the-foundation-for-a-better-world/ The Care Collective