Search

This paper charts the journey from classroom-based training delivery to hybrid and virtual learning opportunities used to overcome the challenges imposed by public health restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health measures introduced in March 2020 had a significant effect on the ability of the Children First Information and Advice Service (CFIAS), in Tusla, Ireland's Child and Family Agency, to deliver services. One of the key tools used by the CFIAS to support understanding of responsibilities, and best practice, in child safeguarding by professionals, and within organisations, has been the provision of direct training and information sessions. The introduction of public health restrictions necessitated a complete rethink by the CFIAS on how child safeguarding training and information are delivered. The paper presents an outline of the background and context of child safeguarding in Ireland, followed by a description of some of the challenges experienced by the CFIAS in response to the pandemic public health restrictions. It includes discussion on strategies and solutions considered to overcome these challenges. There is further discussion on the tools and methods eventually used, followed by a reflection on lessons learned by the CFIAS in areas including training delivery and methodology, eLearning, and information provision. The paper provides an analysis of limited qualitative and quantitative data, as well as a reflection on the lived experience of the CFIAS team members responding to the challenges posed during this time period, rather than a preplanned research study on pedagogical approaches in adult learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic drew public attention to the essential work and vulnerability of low-income Latina immigrants. Less recognized were the ways immigrant community organizations mobilized under exceptional conditions to provide immediate support to their communities while continuing to work toward durable systematic change. This paper analyzes the approach of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over three decades, MUA developed an organizing model that builds transformative relationships among peers and provides direct services and leadership development for civic engagement. MUA has a long history of research collaborations and self-study aligned with critical community-engaged research methods and values. In 2019, MUA formed a research team of its leaders and academics to analyze the impact of their model. Since data collection occurred between March 2020 and December 2022, the research also documented the organization's response to COVID-19. This paper argues that specific organizational values and practices of liderazgo, apoyo, and confianza (leadership, support, and trust) proved to be particularly powerful resources for sustaining individuals and community work through the pandemic, enabling women who have experienced multiple forms of structural violence to perceive themselves as capable of healing themselves and their communities while working to address root causes of trauma and inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the Inclusive Research Network (IRN), an inclusive research group founded by the Centre for Disability Studies, contributing to a National Disability Research Agenda (NDRA) setting project. IRN members with ID carried out their own consultations with disability stakeholders. This paper sets out the experiences of the IRN members in facilitating focus groups as part of phase 2 of the NDRA project. As this project took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and state lockdowns, this paper also provides a reflection on new ways of carrying out research and provides an insight into the process for other groups seeking to engage in inclusive research of this nature in a challenging and changing environment. IRN members showed great interest in being involved in the project, and their motivations aligned with the project's objectives. Facilitating the focus groups on Zoom took some preparation and posed accessibility challenges but enabled a more diverse group of people to attend. IRN members with ID improved their online facilitation skills and confidence but concluded that they preferred working face to face. IRN members overcame the challenges presented by online focus groups, and their involvement added value to the NDRA project. Researchers are encouraged to continue practicing inclusive research in times of remote working and virtual interaction and to share their experiences for mutual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent COVID-19 pandemic uncovered some already existing but somewhat hidden inequalities in different countries. Many features of inequalities that pre-existed the COVID-19 pandemic for a long time were uncovered due to this radical shift in living arrangements globally. This paper focuses on one particular feature of these inequalities: housing situation of one Iranian asylum seeker in a heim (refugee accommodation) in Germany. Contributing to an understanding of how political resistance can be exercised through personal biographies, the paper differentiates between the notion of 'unhome' from home by discussing three factors: choice, anchor and the significant of others. The paper contributes to the growing scholarships around home in migration and its intersection with personal narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 lockdown has had serious consequences, including rethinking higher education. The study aims to enhance the knowledge base of online education and academic integrity through a case study of the Ludovika University of Public Service (LUPS), Budapest, Hungary. The research aimed to assess the teachers' experience with distance learning and examinations, including the change in workload, digital competencies, Moodle, Turnitin, and other software used during and after the lockdown. This paper summarizes the university-level policy changes induced during the lockdown, covering the introduction of emergency distance teaching and online examinations in academic integrity at the university. Two years after the first lockdown, the researchers made a survey (n = 145) about the continuation of the introduced solutions. The results show that a remarkable reordering started while the technical and technological backgrounds were available for the changes. The teachers could feel a significant increase in workload with distance education and have low trust in maintaining the standards of academic integrity. However, the research shows moderate and low levels of digital competencies in the majority of teachers, which clearly defines the most crucial task leading to success. Maintaining the monitoring system with objective indicators of the development and the opinions of the interested parties is essential for successful strategies in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines housework reallocation during China's stringent pandemic lockdowns in 2020, where individuals were homebound and job-free while employment status remained unchanged. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, it analyzes 1669 surveys and 100 interviews to understand changes in domestic labor patterns and the underlying reasons. The findings indicate that men increased their participation in grocery shopping but decreased in cooking, cleaning, and laundry during the lockdown. This gender-task pattern was mirrored in multi-generational households, where younger family members often took on these tasks. The reasons articulated for these shifts predominantly converged around the 'doing gender' theory. Women, particularly those working full-time, had more time to engage in household chores. Men, while also having more available time, predominantly focused on grocery shopping, a task that gained masculine connotations during the lockdown. Factors such as perceived differences in household labor quality, difficulty delegating housework, and reduced workload led to women's increased involvement and specialization in domestic tasks. The study challenges the notion that economic factors are the primary drivers of gender-based division of housework. Instead, it suggests that ingrained gender norms continue to dictate domestic roles, as evidenced during the lockdown period devoid of usual economic and time pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manner in which individuals worldwide shared art during the most challenging months of the COVID-19 pandemic stands as one of the most significant instances of creative social resistance in recent history. As a collective tool of resistance against emotional trauma, and as a means to foster a sense of community and well-being, the study of this phenomenon offers a compelling avenue for research into creativity and its social functions. This paper presents a descriptive case study of a successful 50-day collective experience within a neighborhood community in Madrid, Spain, during a period when the city, as a notably exceptional case study for research, bore one of the heaviest burdens of COVID-19 in the world. Data were gathered through in-depth personal interviews and direct observations. Applying a connected approach drawing on the fields of the Sociology of Art and Media Studies, three key findings emerge: (1) participants emphasized shared live artistic performances as the primary catalyst for fostering a sense of community, collective resilience, and overall well-being; (2) their sense of togetherness was further bolstered by digital and media support, as recordings of live performances were shared with loved ones living elsewhere, as well as with journalists and on social networks. This network of communication played a pivotal role in connecting individuals; (3) the combined efforts of both initiatives contributed to the development of a more positive individual and shared narrative surrounding the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of social media use has been phenomenal, particularly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Facebook has also seen its share of users rise at a meteoric rate. At the same time, the academy is producing a growing body of literature concerning the use of online methods for primary data collection. Yet, despite the increase in the use of the internet as a research tool, very little still exists on the use of social media to recruit research participants, particularly those deemed "socially invisible". This paper addresses this gap. Another research project explored the experiences of South Asian women who had departed the social norms of arranged marriage to form an intimate relationship with a partner of choice and who then experienced forms of gender-related violence (GRV). The project encountered difficulties in recruiting participants from this marginalised and often invisible group in UK society, who are often too frightened or ashamed to come forward. This study demonstrates how to use Facebook ethically and methodologically, highlighting some of the methods used to overcome the challenges that were presented. The research was undertaken before the COVID-19 pandemic (which prompted a widespread use of social media in social science research). We argue that, despite the ethical challenges, the advantages of using social media to recruit participants when researching a highly sensitive topic such as GRV with 'invisible groups' was highly beneficial. We therefore suggest that social media should be an integral part of the research recruitment process, alongside non-digital methods, so that other 'invisible groups' are not created comprising those who cannot access technology. We share the lessons learned for the benefit of researchers using a similar approach today when recruiting research participants from invisible and marginalised groups. The authors caveat their recommendation of using social media with suggesting that those who do not have high levels of experience of data collection with such cohorts instead consider working with gatekeepers to facilitate the recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of access to basic services played a big part among the key effects of COVID-19 on migrants and refugees. This paper examines the governance dynamics behind public services for migrants and refugees to understand how COVID-19 has impacted them and what accounts for different levels of adaptive capacity. It employs a mixed methods approach, using egocentric network analysis and qualitative interviews to compare the service ecosystems in four European cities from 2020 to 2022 (Birmingham, Larissa, Malaga, and Palermo). The paper explores the impact of two conditions on the service ecosystems' ability to adapt to the pandemic: the structure of governance and the presence of dynamic capabilities. We argue that the ability of local governments to manage pandemic challenges is highly dependent on the formal distribution of comprehensive competences across various levels (the structure of governance), and the quality of network cooperation between different administrations and civil society (dynamic capabilities). Our analysis reveals that while both conditions are critical for the level of adaptive capacity in public services' provision, the structure of governance is more likely to act as a constraint or trigger for coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an influx of misinformation surrounding the virus and its origins. This paper examines the negative consequences of neoliberal self-care discourses related to COVID-19 that contributed to the disinfodemic, focusing on the wellness industry. Some health gurus and wellness instructors promoted lifestyle adjustments and self-care to prevent contracting the virus and sometimes blamed COVID-19 patients for contracting it. These claims contributed to vaccine hesitancy and pseudo-scientific beliefs. The misinformation was attractive partly because it promised individual control and independence from mainstream (scientific) advice. These discourses existed before the pandemic but were amplified within the wellness community after the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper concludes by exploring the feminist notions of care and solidarity as a counter to the neoliberal notion of self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bangladesh government issued a lockdown throughout the country from March–May 2020 in response to the COVID-19. The sudden lockdown caused economic ruptures across the country due to job loss. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the outbreak through 40 in-depth interviews with men and women living in three Dhaka informal settlements from January to November 2021 to identify gaps to mitigate negative downstream effects of global pandemic policies. In this paper, we explore the critical importance of social networks as coping mechanisms for those who lost livelihood due to COVID-19 lockdown. Due to the congested living conditions in informal settlements, many established residents foster close, trusting relationships, and a strong sense of community. Formal and informal networks in urban slums, whether reciprocal or strategic, played an integral role as a way of coping during times of scarcity. We found limited analysis in public health literature on the resilience of these social networks and its impact on health and wellbeing. Our paper attempts to unpack the ways our respondents drew on their own social networks to combat the socio-economic and emotional health challenges brought on by a lack of adequate formalized support as part of the pandemic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the explanatory capability of the individual, organizational, environmental and job factors regarding Spanish workers' perception of isolation and stress owing to working from home (WFH). We used a survey of the Spanish agency Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas on the Spanish population's perceptions of several aspects of information technologies that was carried out in March 2021. Information overload, work overload and isolation are perceived to be the principal factors involved in WFH. Because WFH could be inhibit professional development, drawbacks in the infrastructure include overload and impediments to career development as the most relevant variables to explain the perception of isolation. Age and balance between family and work also have explanatory power, but less so for isolation and stress. While people with intermediate ages are less sensitive to isolation and stress, having a correct balance between work and personal life is a protective factor against these effects. From the results in this paper, we outline several questions that must be addressed by labour authorities via legal regulations and by firms and workers to adapt organizational and working culture to ensure the efficient implementation of WFH settings compatible with employees' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acknowledging the importance of technology in the mental health and wellbeing of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper aims to analyse the uses of mobile health applications by young Portuguese adults focusing on the following research question: How do the uses of m-apps by young adults interact with health and wellbeing from a gender perspective? An online survey was conducted to a representative sample of young Portuguese adults (18–30 years), under the objectives of the MyGender project that studies the interconnections of young adults with m-apps, with their technicity and imaginaries. The approach followed in this paper is quantitative-extensive. Results reveal low usage of overall health and wellbeing apps, particularly among single respondents who do not have children. Health and self-tracking apps are among the 10 most frequently used apps. Only 6.20% of the sample considers mental health apps (mHapps) as one of the three most important types of apps. Having children is a factor for a bigger interconnectedness of the respondents with overall health and wellbeing apps and the general quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the upheavals that characterize the world of higher education and the recent literature on the subject, the examination of what can improve student well-being has become critical. The JD-R model, originally developed to explain the implementation of motivational processes and the simultaneous unfolding of mechanisms that impact health, is used to contextualize the processes that occur in higher education systems. Objective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of personal resources such as optimism and self-efficacy in increasing academic engagement and as protective factors against technostress. Method. A SEM model was implemented using MPLUS 7 and Jamovi on a sample of 421 university Italian students. They completed an online self-report questionnaire during the height of COVID-19 (May–November 2021) while taking online courses and were predominantly female (64.4%) and full-time academic students (87.6%) with a mean age of 24.6 years. Direct and indirect effects were estimated, accounting for the mediating role of academic engagement. Results. The results indicate that both self-efficacy and optimism have direct and negative effects on technostress. Self-efficacy, in turn, significantly increases academic engagement, whereas optimism has no effect on it. Finally, academic engagement appears to reduce the impact of technostress on the lives of students involved in the study, confirming its mediating role in reducing technostress. Conclusions. This study provides numerous important clues and insights into improving academic performance and well-being, as the use of personal resources can have important implications for avoiding the negative consequences of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to the existing gender asymmetries in academia, which have been extensively studied in the literature. Using the analytical lens of "gendered academic citizenship", this paper takes a micropolitical perspective to examine how the pandemic has impacted the dynamics of academic work, specifically focusing on the often-overlooked aspect of everyday interactions in the work environment. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of survey data collected from 1750 lecturers and researchers in Portuguese higher education and research institutions, the study uncovers that women, especially those who are younger, single, have specific caregiving responsibilities, and are in the early stages of their careers, were more vulnerable to experiencing "everyday" microaggressions such as silencing, exclusion, belittlement, being ignored, lack of validation, and invisibility compared to men during the pandemic. These findings suggest that, while the marginalization of women in academia is a longstanding issue, the virtual work model has created a platform for the expression of subtle forms of disempowerment and discrimination against women. These dynamics are perpetuated within the micropolitics of organizations, shaping subjective feelings of belonging and circulating differential levels of recognition within academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes narrative inquiry to examine the effect of COVID-19 on political resistance, focusing on education as a key site. Based on survey and interview data the paper considers parents' perspectives about the impacts of COVID-19 and racial inequalities in their children's schooling. Two narrative types are constructed and analyzed: consensus narratives and parenting narratives that refute an overarching, manufactured political narrative in the United States of "divisiveness" about race and education, while also identifying the layers and complexities of individual parents' everyday lives raising and educating children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings from a microcredit (financial inclusion) scheme that has been operated by a non-governmental organization since 2012 in a local community in Ghana, and sustained through the COVID-19 pandemic. It first examines microfinance, women's empowerment and third-sector organizational dynamics. It then provides an overview of microfinance in Ghana within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by dissecting the organization's microcredit, training and women's empowerment programmes. The following part documents the findings, with brief concluding thoughts and policy implications appearing in the last section. It is argued here that financial schemes, particularly those operated by third-sector organizations, can play a significant role in helping women in particular to deal with the secondary effects of COVID-19 by providing improved non-financial services and easy access to microfinance at low, sustainable interest rates. These findings have implications for policy formulation and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on organizations and company human resource policies, multiple changes have been made to employee work behaviors. This paper developed a concept model on career plateaus, job burnout, work engagement, and turnover intention and examined it through a non-random sampling survey of 285 employees at resorts in Macao. The results revealed that career plateaus positively impact job burnout and turnover intention, and job burnout positively impacts turnover intention. The study found that career plateau negatively impacts work engagement and positively impacts turnover intention, and work engagement negatively influences turnover intention. Job burnout and work engagement partially mediate the relationship between career plateau and turnover intention. Training negatively moderates career plateau toward work engagement, and job rotation moderates career plateau toward turnover intention. Accordingly, organizations should consider the impact on employees' careers when designing training and job rotation policies in response to the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unaccompanied minors are among the most vulnerable undocumented immigrants facing removal proceedings in US immigration court. To avoid being sent back to violence and deprivation in their home countries, unaccompanied minors may apply for asylum or deportation relief for abandoned, abused, or neglected children. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a crisis for American society that also had key impacts on immigrants' lives and their ability to interact with state systems to apply for legal status and claim rights. This paper asks: (1) How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect unaccompanied minors' social vulnerabilities in the US?; and (2) How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the US immigration bureaucracy and the work of nonprofit advocates who broker unaccompanied minors' interactions with these state systems? Findings show that the pandemic exacerbated unaccompanied minors' social vulnerabilities, with especially adverse effects on indigenous youths, those in legal limbo, unrepresented youths, and those experiencing job loss. The pandemic also disrupted the US immigration bureaucracy and, consequently, the work of advocates who broker immigrants' interactions with these systems, making it more difficult to interact with traumatized youths to obtain necessary information for their cases, meet strict deadlines, and identify their needs. This case study provides lessons on how states and civil society strategically manage a "crisis" and discusses the implications for immigrants' rights and vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to all types of beliefs, theories, and explanations, whether scientific, religious, or conspiratorial. At the beginning of the pandemic, science did not yet have a medicinal product for this new disease, and alternative medicines offering "miracle cures" were acclaimed by some citizens looking for an effective treatment for COVID-19. This article aims to study a specific "miracle cure", namely, chlorine dioxide, a bleaching agent for textiles or paper that also has disinfectant properties (water, surfaces). The dissemination of information about chlorine dioxide to French-speaking people on the social network Twitter from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2021 is analyzed using a graph network. The results show that messages promoting misinformation, even if they are likely to be quantitatively less numerous, spread more widely than those based on more reliable information. In addition, this article shows that chlorine dioxide was promoted as an effective cure by medical doctors and peer-reviewed articles, which consequently increased the dissemination of this belief in the social space. Consequently, the process of misinformation entered the sphere of scientific controversy. The boundary between science and misinformation is becoming blurred to the point that it is no longer possible until proven otherwise to call chlorine dioxide a "false miracle cure" but a controversial treatment against COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper focuses on mobile banking acceptance among Generation Z users by combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) theory, as well as extending the theories with perceived trust and risk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the online questionnaire survey was distributed using Google Forms, and the sample group was Thai Generation Z who were aged between 18 and 25 years old. The research objectives aim to (i) investigate the crucial effects that potentially affect user intention and actual usage of mobile banking, (ii) identify the most influential factor impacting users' intention and behavior, (iii) further study the trust and risk perception of Generation Z users on mobile-banking intention and actual usage, (iv) discuss the findings with the antecedent studies, and (v) contribute the research findings both theoretically and practically. The proposed constructs include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions, perceived trust, perceived risk, behavioral intention, and actual usage. There are fourteen proposed hypotheses to be tested. Based on the outcomes and the standardized coefficient beta, perceived usefulness (β = 0.518) was the strongest factor determining Generation Z's behavioral intention, while perceived ease of use (β = 0.809) impacting perceived usefulness demonstrated the strongest relationship among all of the hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic highlight structural inequities in our educational systems and force educators to ask prominent questions about the role of school as conditions continue to shift. This paper explores challenges and opportunities for moving forward in the fields of teaching and teacher education. Through presenting a framework of education for liberation, sociocultural learning theory, and fostering cultural assets, the value of live, in-person teaching is highlighted. Embracing this moment in history through honoring the lived experiences of students and striving for more collective approaches to teaching and learning are discussed as future possibilities in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we ask how the Finnish Roma community handled the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the information reached Roma communities. The previous studies indicate existing health inequalities between Finnish Roma and the general population. The point of departure for the article is crisis communication between Finnish Roma and national authorities. The themes of racialization, mistrust and Roma relying on peers as a source of information and support became apparent. From this setting, this article sheds light on the way of speaking, usage of language, (Finnish) as a social construction of ethnic identity and expression of (non)belonging. At the same time, the usage of languge and codeswitching reveals social stratifications among the Finnish Roma population. Findings indicate that subtle forms of exclusion of Roma prevail in Finland and are materialized as a "left alone mentality". Consequently, Roma persons working as civil servants or NGO workers would potentially constitute a crucial link between health authorities and the Roma population. This link, however, should be constantly maintained. The study is a qualitative study and based on thematic interviews among Roma actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MSMEs were facing major challenges driven by uncontrollable macro-environmental factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper shows the strategies that a sample of Colombian start-ups developed for their survival in the first months of the COVID-19 crisis and the close relationship between these strategies and the aid policies deployed by the Colombian government. This study involved 220 Colombian enterprises from different sectors of the economy (agriculture, commerce, services, and industry) and different stages of the life cycle. Our statistical analysis was based on a deep survey of highly significant rank correlation, the qualitative association between variables, a structural equation model, and mediation analysis. Among our results, we highlight a high dependence on ICT technologies, varied access to economic aid, and strong dependence on negative crisis impacts with the need for aid and deep business changes. Concerning the last conclusion, we found a significant mediating effect of the adaptability of the start-ups in order to explain why older, bigger, and more necessary enterprises were the ones that obtained aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The employment of fintech as a product and service distribution mechanism in various sectors has been widely adopted for the provision of seamless services. The adoption of fintech by both individuals and organisations avails more convenience in product and service provision. The combination of fintech and social protection service provision has been receiving increased attention, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic era. This paper sought to investigate and show the importance of fintech in social protection research. The study aims to show the evolutionary idea of fintech in social protection to elucidate how much research has been done and elucidate the emerging areas surrounding fintech in social protection. A review of the literature that links social protection provision and fintech was conducted to establish whether more research is needed in integrating fintech with social protection provision. This study employed a bibliometric review to explore linkages that exist between financial technology (fintech) and social protection provision to establish whether the area needs further research. Data were sourced from the SCOPUS database using the Boolean search approach with the use of keywords and filters. Search results were processed and analysed in both SCOPUS and VOSviewer for visual and network positioning. The findings of the study show that fintech and social protection have received increased attention, as shown by the number of publications since 2018. Details of the most influential authors, documents, countries, and sources were documented. The results indicate the following emerging research themes: (1) the adoption of fintech in social protection service provision; (2) blockchain technology research on social protection, (3) fintech in health care service provision combined with health insurance; and (4) fintech as a cushion against the impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on the tourism sector. Economies with a large weight of external tourism were especially affected, as was the case with the Azores region. This paper aims to analyse the level of this crisis and the resilience of tourism recreation companies specializing in canyoning in the Azores region, and whether these reactions led to more sustainable business models. The adopted methodology considered the analysis of recent statistical data on tourism and the available information on COVID-19 pandemic-related impacts. In parallel, questionnaires were applied to all tourism recreation companies in Portugal, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with all the canyoning providers in the Azores region. Results show that all companies survived the crisis, and some have made significant changes to their business models. Furthermore, some degree of success was observed in how services adapted to new demand characteristics, given the small size of most of these businesses and the specialization of their products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the travel behavior relating to Public Transport (PT) changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which are the expectations about the extent of PT use post-pandemic. A revealed preferences questionnaire survey was distributed within an academic community in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. To understand the factors potentially determining the future PT use, hierarchical ordered probit and bivariate ordered probit models were estimated. Results showed that the frequent PT users reduced by almost 75% during the pandemic. More than 29% of the local academic community members are reluctant to resume PT use at pre-pandemic levels. Non-captive users, teleworkers and those being unsatisfied with cleanliness and safety are less willing to travelling by PT post-pandemic. Female and under-stress passengers were found to particularly appreciate the use of facemasks and the increased service frequencies as post-pandemic policy measures. The study findings can inform the recovery strategies of transport authorities in order to retain the PT ridership at levels that will not threat the long-term viability of service provision. Future research may complement these findings by examining other population segments, such as the commuters and the elderly, under more advanced modelling techniques to account for additional unobserved behavioral patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID crisis has disrupted routine patterns and practices across all spheres of everyday life, rupturing social relations and destabilising our capacity for building coherent selves and communities by recollecting the past and imagining potential futures. Education is a key domain in which these hopes for the future have been dashed for many young people and in which commitments to critical scholarship and pedagogies are being contested. In a world of stark socioeconomic inequality, racism, and other forms of dehumanising othering, the pandemic serves not to disrupt narratives of meritocracy and progress but to expose them as the myths they have always been. This paper will explore forms of political resistance and the (im)possibilities for experimental pedagogies in response to the broken promises and unrealised dreams of (higher) education in the context of the COVID crisis. Reflecting on my own everyday life as a scholar and educator in a South African university, and in dialogue with students' narratives of experience, I will examine the ways in which the experience of the pandemic has released and mobilised new forms of resistance to historical institutional and pedagogical practices. However, these hopeful threads of alternative narratives are fragile, improvised in the weighty conditions of a status quo resistant to change, and in which the alienation and inequality of the terrain are being exacerbated and deepened through a proliferation of bureaucratic and technicist solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heavy economic, social, and psychological toll of pandemic lockdowns around the world and their disproportionate effect on women are widely acknowledged, but different socioeconomic backgrounds and contexts may influence the degree to which stay-at-home measures impact their lives. Additionally, knowing that violence against women tends to increase during times of crisis, we are testing if the additional burden of victimization represents an added load to the perceived social impacts of the lockdown. Using 2021 survey data from a random sample of 1541 Portuguese women, the paper explores, through logistic regression models, the social impact of the lockdown on the lives of women, its socioeconomic determinants, and the role played by violence against women during the pandemic. The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown did not equally affect all facets of women's social lives, and women with higher education status and that experienced income reductions due to the measures taken to control the pandemic are more prone to experience a more severe negative impact of the lockdown on the various facets of their lives. Additionally, having been a victim during the pandemic partially mediates the effect of education and income reduction on the social outcomes of the lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain was one of the countries in which more severe lockdown policies were imposed during the second term of 2020 to mitigate the unprecedented health crisis. The measures restricted citizens' mobility, obliging families to stay confined at homes for 99 days since 15 March 2020. The measures created a number of challenges that affect the family climate. This paper aims to empirically analyse how the family climate in Spain has been affected by COVID-19. The family climate assessment was based on an online questionnaire answered by 2034 citizens. A multi-criteria decision-making method rooted in fuzzy logic and TOPSIS, and a fuzzy clustering method, are applied to analyse the effects of the COVID-19 on the family climate. The fuzzy clustering method reveals that there are three different family climate profiles, namely (1) extreme positive, (2) extreme negative, and (3) intermediate. Our results show that some traits affect having a more or less positive family climate. The authors discuss the main contributions and the policy implications that could provide insights into future measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 13 November 2020 and 11 February 2021, an online national survey of 2003 Asian Australians was conducted to measure the type and frequency of self-identified Asian Australians' experiences of racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey also aimed to gauge the relationships between racist experiences and targets' mental health, wellbeing and sense of belonging. In this paper, we report findings on the type and frequency of online racist experiences and their associations with mental health, wellbeing and belonging. The survey found that 40 per cent of participants experienced racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within that group, 66 per cent experienced racism online. The demographic pattern of those most likely to experience online racism were younger age groups, males, those born in Australia, English speakers at home, non-Christians, and migrants who have been in Australia less than 20 years. Analysis also found a strong correlation between Asian Australians' experiences of online racism and poor mental health, wellbeing and belonging. The relationship between experiencing racism, non-belonging and morbidity were more pronounced for those who experienced online racism compared to those who experienced racism in other offline contexts. This points to the corrosive nature of online racism on social cohesion, health and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of China's new wave of COVID-19 in May 2023, the issue of tackling COVID-19 misinformation remains relevant. Based on Lippmann's theory of public opinion and agenda setting theory, this article aims to examine the concept of digital pseudo-identification as a type of logical fallacy that refers to supporting journalists' opinions with 'false' arguments that lack factual evidence. To do so, the study applied computer-aided content analysis, as well as rhetorical and critical discourse analyses, to examine 400 articles related to four COVID-19 vaccines ('Oxford-AstraZeneca', 'Pfizer-BioNTech', 'Sputnik V' and 'Sinovac') published on the online versions of two major British and American mainstream media sources between August 2020 and December 2021. The results of the study show that journalists of the 'The New York Times' and 'The Guardian' used similar logical fallacies, including the opinions of pseudo-authorities and references to pseudo-statistics and stereotypes, which contributed to creating distorted representations of the COVID-19 vaccines and propagating online misinformation. The study also reveals political bias in both of the mainstream media sources, with relatively more positive coverage of the European vaccines than non-European vaccines. The findings have important implications for journalism and open up perspectives for further research on the concept of digital pseudo-identification in the humanities and social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the COVID-19 crisis in Russia, France, Germany, and the UK, as covered by the Russian state media outlet RT (formerly Russia Today). I view the RT coverage through the prism of biopolitics and critical discourse analysis (CDA) to demonstrate multiple discrepancies in its "post-truth" knowledge production strategies. I argue that these strategies aim to expose the hybrid and controversial nature of biopolitical governance in Western democracies during the COVID-19 pandemic as they struggle to strike a balance between imposing social restrictions and safeguarding public health. I also show how the (post)liberal biopolitical debate on personal responsibility and state resilience in times of emergency could be applied by authoritarian regimes for self-description. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative Structural Interventions to Promote the Health, Safety, and Rights of Sex Workers Their findings reveal an increase in online sex work during the COVID-19 pandemic for three primary reasons: an expansion in the number of websites offering sexual services, the introduction of new digital sex workers to the industry, and the continued offering of sex for pay from workers who provided services before the pandemic. The authors examine "cam work" as an economic strategy employed by sex workers before and during the pandemic and discuss the nuanced rewards and risks of virtual sex work. As contributors [23] ([23]) mentioned above, [35] ([35]) call for government/policy makers to recognize sex work as a form of labor and implement occupational health and safety regulations for sex workers across genders. [Extracted from the article]

During certain crises, displacement of populations seeking safe refuge elsewhere can occur without the certainty of a return, if at all. Children and young people in such contexts often face the additional challenge of restrictions or disregard towards engaging their agency in migration decision-making processes. Through 60 in-depth interviews with 30 trans-Himalayan participants (ages of 16–23) and multi-sited ethnography throughout Nepal, this paper investigates multiple experiences of crises experienced by young people and the effects on their life course trajectories. From focusing on the Civil War in 1996–2006, the 2015 earthquake, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper proposes that initial displacements from the Civil War, when connected with other crises later on in a participant's life course, better prepared them to deal with crises and enabled them to create a landscape of resilience. Furthermore, a landscape of resilience that connects past and present life course experiences during crises prepared some participants for helping their larger communities alleviate certain crises-related tension. Overall, this paper extends analysis on an under-researched group of young migrants by connecting crises that shaped their (im)mobility and life trajectories, rather than approaching crises as singular, isolated experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global higher education sector has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the mode of delivery has transformed into a blended learning mode of delivery or fully remote mode. Online delivery significantly demands reliable and stable internet access and technology, at both the lecturer's and students' ends. This paper investigates the challenges and barriers to accessibility of technologies used for remote delivery of learning and teaching. The paper also investigates key digital skills students need to help them develop and enhance their technology literacy. A survey was also conducted among 555 university undergraduate students to identify their choice of device to connect to remote learning during the transition to online learning. It was revealed that students used laptops and smartphones considerably and least relied on desktop computers. The results indicate the significance of a device's portability, built-in network hardware and cost. Further, it identifies the impacts of accessibility of educational technologies on students' learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In managing the coronavirus pandemic, national authorities worldwide have implemented significant re-bordering measures. This has even affected regions that had dismantled bordering practices decades ago, e.g., EU areas that lifted internal borders in 1993. In some national cases, these new arrangements had unexpected consequences in the field of immigration enforcement. A number of European jurisdictions released significant percentages of their immigration detention populations in spring 2020. The Spanish administration even decreed a moratorium on immigration detention and closed down all detention facilities from mid-spring to late summer 2020. The paper scrutinises these unprecedented changes by examining the variety of migration enforcement agendas adopted by European countries and the specific forces contributing to the prominent detention decline witnessed in the first months of the pandemic. Drawing on the Spanish case, the paper reflects on the potential impact of this promising precedent on the gradual consolidation of social and racial justice-based migration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic affected economic, social, health, and political aspects of most global, national, and local populations, including urban and rural communities. Government measures like lockdowns resulted in the closure of schools and businesses, while social distancing preventing group gatherings impacted public and private spaces. Based on key informants' interviews with 36 participants drawn equally from three senatorial districts of Edo and Delta states of Nigeria, we analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the type of work men and women do and division of household activities, such as cooking, child, and family care. The findings show that traditional gender role ideology (GRI) defines and shapes rural men's and women's work, with women more engaged in farming, rearing livestock, and trading while men are engaged in farming, rearing livestock, and carrying out skilled jobs like carpentry, plumbing, and blacksmithing. The lockdown of schools and workplaces resulted in women disproportionately bearing the burden of cooking and caring for children, the elderly, and the sick. A few rural men shared childcare, while women spent more time on housework and childcare activities than in the pre-pandemic period when children were in school for 6–7 h daily. During the pandemic, rural men and women spent more time with the children, such that rural women stayed at home or took children to the farms and marketplaces where possible. Older siblings and the elderly also provided support for women. In conclusion, work and family activities during COVID were, to an extent, difficult to manage as parents had to cope with increasing food insecurity, economic and transportation costs, and social deprivation fostered by social norms, values, and practices that perpetuate gender inequality and marginalization of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study is an anthropological reflection on the impact of multiple disaster events on the culture and economy of the Hamadōri coastal area of Fukushima, Japan. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown; the pandemic of 2020; and today's global warming have affected this area's economic, touristic, and cultural practices, such as the Soma Nomaoi Calvary tradition. Outcomes exemplify the concept of punctuated entropy: a permanent decline in the adaptive flexibility of a human cultural system to the environment brought on by the cumulative impact of periodic disaster events. In the case of Fukushima, efforts to mitigate and recover from these closely occurring disaster events have been only partially successful, and the outcomes provide profound lessons learned regarding the complexity of the recovery process when deep-seated and sustaining cultural practices are disrupted or lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for many American workers to work from home. Did the rapid and widespread adoption of remote work arrangements influence workers' preferences? This study analyzes the early pandemic work experiences of 52 participants (20 men and 32 women) in dual-earner households with children through in-depth interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 via Zoom. The study explores respondents' desire for remote and hybrid work, considering job satisfaction as well as job characteristics, family structure, and household organization. Unless their jobs were poorly suited to remote work, most workers with pandemic-era remote work opportunities—and even some who had not worked remotely—wished to keep remote access in their post-pandemic work arrangements. Respondents reported enhanced job satisfaction and productivity from remote work, as a result of greater schedule control and flexibility. We found that some workers were willing to change jobs to maintain their preferred work arrangement, while others acquiesced to employers' return-to-work policies. The study highlights the need to understand workers' preferences in supporting flexible work arrangements and contributes to the understanding of remote work on family dynamics during the pandemic and afterwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the new normal for female researchers in the post-pandemic era by utilising information collected from the pandemic period, when disruption to 'business as usual' occurred. This information can inform a new normal that is as efficient, resilient, and ethical as possible. The research employs a case study methodology, with qualitative data collection and analysis approaches. To understand the circumstances faced by researchers in Cyprus during the pandemic, it was necessary to approach several scientists from different research areas and try to understand their experiences through conversations. The set of notes compiled from the completion of the informal conversations were analysed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: (a) misperceptions of flexibility in researchers' schedules and workload, (b) lack of flexibility in adjusting expected outcomes or timelines, and (c) inability to compartmentalise personal and professional life. To better contextualise these findings, the study additionally explored survey results published by the European Commission on relevant topics, enabling a critical juxtaposition of the European perspective to the Cyprus-based findings of these pandemic-induced challenges. The study highlights significant misconceptions and overlooked dynamics regarding research conducted in times of crisis and offers avenues for ensuring research quality in analogous future scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From March 2020 until July 2020, the UAE implemented mandatory distance learning due to COVID-19, which meant that children had to continue their learning remotely at home. Though schools concerted exemplary efforts to ensure that children received all that was necessary through advanced technology platforms and interfaces, the duty of ensuring that children continued to engage in successful learning fell solely on parents. This paper is based on a self-report study conducted during this first period of distance learning where parents were invited to anonymously complete a survey and then be interviewed. The paper relies on interviews as its main data source. Interview transcripts once transcribed were thematically analysed. One recurring theme in the data was gender differences in domestic and other duties as well as attending to the educational needs of children. Mothers, irrespective of cultural or educational background, disproportionately seemed to be the caretakers of the home and of children's educational needs. Mothers spoke of their mental health concerns, pressures of time management, and negative effects on their own work. This paper makes an original contribution by exploring parental experiences of emergency remote learning and what these reflect about parental ethnotheories in the UAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is meant as a timely intervention into current debates on the impact of the global pandemic on the rise of global far-right populism and contributes to scholarly thinking about the normalisation of the global far-right. While approaching the tension between national political elites and (far-right) populist narratives of representing "the people", the paper focuses on the populist effects of the "new normal" in spatial national governance. Though some aspects of public normality of our 21st century urban, cosmopolitan and consumer lifestyle have been disrupted with the pandemic curfew, the underlying gendered, racialised and classed structural inequalities and violence have been kept in place: they are not contested by the so-called "hygienic demonstrations". A digital pandemic populism during lockdown might have pushed further the mobilisation of the far right, also on the streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely restricted global movement, thus affecting migration processes and immigrants themselves. The paper focuses on the evaluation of bordering procedures and practices introduced by the Polish government in the time of the pandemic. The aim is to highlight the duality in the admission processes at Polish borders between labour and forced migrants, which have been driven, as I argue, by economic interests and the xenophobic attitudes of the government. The paper is based on interviews with experts assisting migrants during the pandemic in Poland, whose direct contact with thousands of clients has allowed them to acquire broad knowledge of how the new legal provisions have affected different groups of immigrants. The data confirms that the Polish border is very porous. It has been almost completely closed to asylum seekers, especially those fleeing from Muslim countries, for whom the only option is to cross the border illegally. Only one exception was made for Belarusians, who were cordially welcomed at the border while escaping persecution in their home country in the wake of their protests against Lukashenko's regime. Economic migrants, on the other hand, exist on the other side of the spectrum. For immigrant workers, borders have remained open throughout the whole pandemic. Moreover, some further measures facilitating their arrival were introduced, such as de facto lifting of quarantine for seasonal farm workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how heterosexual couples in Taipei used space when both were working from home. I interviewed 29 heterosexual couples on how they arranged working space at home and how these spatial arrangements influenced their working experiences and career development. I found that space was gendered: men tended to work in a preferable space at home compared to their partners. However, a preferable space was not always defined by its physical setting, such as a room. Interviews revealed that women tended to move around to accommodate their family members' needs when they worked from home, having unstable and interrupted working environments. Their experiences revealed that women's family roles, such as mother, daughter, and wife, are prioritized at home, resulting in constant interruptions. On the contrary, men's roles as workers were prioritized and protected when they worked from home. Gender superseded and transformed the physical space and reproduced gender inequality at work for people who work from home. This study suggests the need to consider the impact of gender norms before treating remote work as a pro-work–family policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disability is a process or event that significantly disrupts, paralyzes, or prevents the formation and/or sustaining of interpersonal social relations required for meeting human needs. When prolonged, the 'disabling' of essential human interrelationships can have a destructive impact. This is especially true in communities where people are highly interdependent and where individuals living with disabilities rely upon social relationships to prevent isolation and decline in overall wellbeing. Meanwhile, disaster response systems have developed to first rescue or protect individuals' 'bare life' and immediate, bodily needs. We argue that these systems, intended to mitigate disaster, can exacerbate social disability as a kind of collateral damage. We explore this problem as it unfolded amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in two research sites: one located in rural, northern Scotland and another located in rural, Midwestern United States. The Scottish research focuses on experiences, causes and risks of social disability for adults living with disabilities within a small rural community, while the U.S. research focuses on emergence of and resistance to social disability among residents of a continuing care retirement community for 55+ aged adults. We conclude with implications and recommendations for disaster intervention and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of the care infrastructure that occurred during the COVID-19 crisis exposed society's continued reliance on women and mothers as default caregivers. But less is known about how this crisis produced gendered mental health outcomes, especially in occupations characterized by intensive work cultures such as academia. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative responses from a May 2021 campus-wide survey of faculty at a large research university in the United States, we explore gendered patterns in faculty caregivers' time use, stress, and perceptions of institutional support. Our findings demonstrate that childcare responsibilities were not merely more substantial for women than men in terms of hours, but they were also qualitatively different, with women's hours being more unpredictable, interruptive, and mentally and emotionally demanding. We also show that the pandemic took a higher toll on women faculty's mental health compared to men's. This gap in mental health emerged not merely because women were spending more time caregiving on average, but also because the university's policies did not effectively support the most strained caregivers. This study contributes empirical evidence to research on academic caregivers during the pandemic and to work demonstrating how (1) gendered caregiving dynamics shape mental health and remote work experiences and (2) the reliance on individual solutions to balancing work and family has failed even relatively privileged workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research studies on academic work and the COVID-19 crisis have clearly shown that the pandemic crisis contributed to exacerbating pre-existing gender gaps. Although the research has been extensive in this regard, it has focused more on the widening of the "motherhood penalty", while other groups of academics are blurred. Even more underinvestigated and not yet fully explained are the intersections between further axes of diversity, often because the research conducted during the pandemic was based on a small volume of in-depth data. By drawing on interview data from a wider national research project, this article aims to contribute to this debate by adopting an intersectional approach. In investigating daily working life and work–life balance during the pandemic of a highly heterogeneous sample of 127 Italian academics, this article sheds light on how gender combines with other axes of asymmetry, particularly class (precarious versus stable and prestigious career positions) and age (individuals' life-course stage), to produce specific conditions of interrelated (dis)advantage for some academics. The analysis reveals three household and family life course types that embody the interlocking of gender, class, and age within a specific social location with unequal, and possibly long-term, consequences for the quality of working life, well-being, and careers of academics, living alone or with parents, couples without children or with grown-up children, and couples with young children and other family members in need of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work became the new reality for many fathers. Though time availability theory suggests that this newfound flexibility should lead to more domestic labor on the part of fathers, many were skeptical that fathers would step up to shoulder the load at home. Indeed, the findings are decidedly mixed on the association of fathers' remote work with their performance of housework and childcare. Nonetheless, research has yet to consider how contextual factors, such as fathers' gender ideologies and mothers' employment, may condition these associations. Using data from Wave 1 of the Study on U.S. Parents' Divisions of Labor During COVID-19 (SPDLC), we examine how gender ideology moderates the association between fathers' remote work and their performance and share of childcare during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in both sole-earner and dual-earner families. The results show, for sole-earning fathers and dual-earner fathers with egalitarian gender attitudes, that the frequency of remote work was positively associated with fathers performing more, and a greater share of, childcare during the pandemic. Yet, only dual-earner fathers with egalitarian gender attitudes performed an equal share of childcare in their families. These findings suggest that the pandemic provided structural opportunities for fathers, particularly egalitarian-minded fathers, to be the equally engaged parents they desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public generally expressed high pandemic-specific support for their governments. Analysis based on ESS Round 10 COVID-19 module data from 20 countries shows, however, that there was a gap between pandemic-specific and specific support for governments in European states. A positive gap in favor of pandemic-specific support for governments was found among 52.7% of the respondents, while a negative trend was observed among 24.0% of the respondents. Younger people, those self-employed or working for family businesses, students, those with better subjective health, and people who tested positive for or thought they had suffered from COVID-19 expressed less satisfaction with the government's handling of COVID-19 in their country compared to general satisfaction with national government performance. Political opinions affected the support gap too; people who were satisfied with the way democracy works, were less trusting of their government's ability to control the spread of the pathogen, preferred their own decisions over compliance with government restrictions, and perceived that their government failed to manage the health–economy trade-off restrained their pandemic-specific support for the government as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]