In Spain, a chat on the doorstep is a custom worth preserving in the digital age | María Ramírez

The mayor of a small town in southern Spain felt compelled to clarify that there is no new municipal ban on older women sitting out on the pavement in their own chairs.

He was responding to a furious online backlash directed mostly at the town’s police after they posted a message on social media urging the residents of Santa Fe to show “civility” by not sitting in the streets in the late hours disturbing neighbours.

Sitting and talking in public spaces is a tradition that dates back centuries and is closely intertwined with the history of women's rights.

Conversation in public, shared spaces has a special power in these polarised, lonely, even dehumanising times. A sense of community requires much more than a few chairs on the pavement, but it is a good place to start. - María Ramírez is a journalist and the deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain .