Being interconnected at the time of COVID-19 pandemic: a call to regain the sense of community

This article focuses on the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and world's interconnectedness, in the belief that the present situation, although temporary, could shed light on some key structural issues of our contemporary societies. Here the "network" image is used, metaphorically, for both describing the dynamics of the contagion and highlighting the risks and opportunities of being highly interconnected. It is then discussed how the magnitude of the crisis requires to understand its deeper reasons, as what is really at stake is the type of world we want to live in. In this respect, the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is used for showing how the analysis and representation of the pandemic vary according to different schemes and worldviews. It is suggested that living more safely in a highly interconnected context requires a heightened sense of belonging, i.e. regaining the sense of community (as encapsulated for example in the African proverb "I am because we are"). Getting this sense of community would provide an alternative way forward with multiple cascading effects, and yet it is not something that can be easily achieved, unless a turn in worldview is involved.