‘The Food Package Makes My Hands Dirty Now’: Exploring Domestic Cleaning Practices During the Pandemic

Abstract

This article examines how domestic cleaning practices were transformed during the pandemic and how they redefined everyday life. Based on a perspective of actor-network theory, we take the food package as an actant and follow it in domestic space through its interactions with other actants. To get a deeper understanding of these interactions, we conducted an ethnographic study focusing on the food package. Our findings reveal that the new cleaning rituals emerging in this context are shaped by metaphors, which are connected to a broader network of cleaning culture based on particular traditions and beliefs.

KEYWORDS: :

• cleaning
• actor-network theory
• food package
• metaphor
• pandemic

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pelin Efilti

PELIN EFILTI IS A PH.D. CANDIDATE AND A RESEARCH ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AT ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (ITU). HER RESEARCH INTERESTS ARE HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN, PARTICIPATORY DESIGN RESEARCH, DESIGN EDUCATION, AND PEDAGOGY. [email protected]

Ozge Merzali Celikoglu

OZGE MERZALI CELIKOGLU, PH.D. IS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AT ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. HER RESEARCH IS PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH MEANING AND INTERPRETATION, IN PARTICULAR HOW ETHNOGRAPHY INFORMS DESIGN WITHIN THE BROADER CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE. [email protected]