Reconsidering the role of place in health and welfare services: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Canada

Places—the meaningful locations of daily life—have been central to the wellbeing of humans since they first formed social groups, providing a stable base for individuals, families, and communities. In the United States and Canada, as elsewhere, place also plays a foundational role in the provision of critical social and health services and resources. Yet the globally destabilizing events of the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically challenged the concept, experience, and meaning of place. Place-centered public health measures such as lockdowns and stay-at-home orders have disrupted and transformed homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. These measures stressed families and communities, particularly among marginalized groups, and made the delivery of vital resources and services more difficult. At the same time, the pandemic has stimulated a range of creative and resilient responses. Building from an overview of these effects and drawing conceptually on theories of people–place relationships, this paper argues for critical attention to reconsidering and re-envisioning prevailing assumptions about place-centric policies, services, and practices. Such reappraisal is vital to ensuring that, going forward, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners can effectively design and deliver services capable of maintaining social connections, safety, and wellbeing in contexts of uncertainty, inequality, and flux.