ABSTRACT
The article is devoted to the analysis of the pandemic impact on the life of the older people in urban and rural contexts. Our study permits to conclude that the pandemic in a rural context has not increased social exclusion of the older people at the community level. In turn, in the urban context, the elderly faced severe spatial isolation and inability to maintain their usual daily lifestyle, which negatively affected their physical and psychological state. In terms of health care, many older people, both urban and rural, have been forced to cancel scheduled doctor visits and check-ups, postpone surgery indefinitely. The pandemic emphasized the infrastructure deficit in rural areas, when, after the cancellation of bus traffic, the villagers were actually cut off from shops and services. A striking trend during the pandemic has been a rapid digitalization (developing gadgets, transferring communication to an online format, searching for and consuming information on the Internet), which has affected both villages and city dwellers. We can see the growth of intergenerational and local solidarity expressed in the help from the younger generations of the family, volunteer associations in the city and the local community in the countryside. © 2022, Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniya. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The article focuses on adaptation strategies that cultural organizations invented and applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in 2021 in St. Petersburg based on a mixed methodology. The data was collected in theatres, museums, libraries, and creative spaces using questionnaires, expert interviews, and webometrics of social networks of the organizations. For the analysis, we employed the concepts of network society and autonomy. The study revealed a clear trend typical for most organizations — a forced transition to an online format, followed by the development of adaptation strategies in the face of severe restrictions. The key difficulties were the weakness of the material and technical base and the lack of competencies and specialists to produce content and attract an audience online. The crisis of digitalization has exposed the structural complexities associated with the (un)willingness to transform the former autonomy and work with the new requirements of the network society, which involve the reduction of intermediaries (“uberization of culture”) and the loss of former communities. We have identified three strategies for adapting to the new normal. The first is deepening digitalization used by libraries that were active online even before the pandemic. They turned out in the most advantageous position, building on and expanding the previously developed digital activity. The second strategy is hybrid and used by museums, which, on the one hand, have stepped up the digitization of their collections and have begun to use new formats, such as broadcasts from previously closed repositories. However, on the other hand, they have maintained a connection with live visitors as a key direction for their future development. The third strategy is the strategy of autonomy from digitalization. It is inherent in theaters, for which the transition to online has proven to be the most challenging and sometimes impossible. To feel and understand the reaction of the “indifferent viewer”, we had to develop new formats that involve the viewer’s involvement and feedback. © 2022 Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The article is devoted to the analysis of the pandemic impact on the life of the older people in urban and rural contexts. Our study permits to conclude that the pandemic in a rural context has not increased social exclusion of the older people at the community level. In turn, in the urban context, the elderly faced severe spatial isolation and inability to maintain their usual daily lifestyle, which negatively affected their physical and psychological state. In terms of health care, many older people, both urban and rural, have been forced to cancel scheduled doctor visits and check-ups, postpone surgery indefinitely. The pandemic emphasized the infrastructure deficit in rural areas, when, after the cancellation of bus traffic, the villagers were actually cut off from shops and services. A striking trend during the pandemic has been a rapid digitalization (developing gadgets, transferring communication to an online format, searching for and consuming information on the Internet), which has affected both villages and city dwellers. We can see the growth of intergenerational and local solidarity expressed in the help from the younger generations of the family, volunteer associations in the city and the local community in the countryside.
ABSTRACT
One of the most vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic was the older people. This is due not only to the danger of the disease itself and its consequences, but also to the conditions of quarantine restrictions. Based on the materials of 26 interviews with representatives of the older people (from 63 to 87 years old), we analyzed how older people experienced the pandemic in St. Petersburg. The interviews were collected from July to September 2020 by senior volunteers (60+) of the non-commercial organization <<House of Projects>> (St. Petersburg). The most difficult informants endured spatial isolation in their own apartments and the inability to take walks, maintain live communication, lack of reliable information about pamdemic. In the case of medical care, many were forced to cancel scheduled visits and examinations, postpone surgery indefinitely, and also experienced difficulties in obtaining prescription drugs, glasses and dental care. On the positive side during the quarantine period, elderly informants noted the development of youth volunteer movement and assistance, the development of mobile devices and online communication methods, and the establishment of closer emotional ties with relatives. In summary, we can say that the strict restrictions on leaving homes for the older people, and intimidation <<from TV>>, lack of reliable information, restrictions on access to health care, clearly observed during the quarantine period, do not correspond to the responsible care for citizens by state.