Editorial: Emotions and the Senses in Times of Crisis: Caring in Pandemic and Postpandemic Futures

ABSTRACT This special issue explores care, emotions and the senses in social work during COVID‐19, drawing on papers from six countries. It reconsiders the pandemic as a moment that reshaped the relational, embodied and affective dimensions of care under conditions of uncertainty, intensified governance and scientisation. The papers examine how care practices, emotional regulation and sensory knowledge were transformed across diverse contexts for practitioners and service users, foregrounding care as a relational, embodied and politically situated practice shaped by inequalities and institutional constraints. The collection highlights both disruption and continuity in relational labour, including practices of intimacy, advocacy and adaptation in crisis conditions, reaffirming the centrality of emotion and the senses to social work and care during lockdown.