Emotional reflexivity in the time of COVID-19: working-class emotional practices

We share findings from a qualitative study on emotions in Scottish working-class households during lockdown. The results challenge existing research focused on emotional capital, which often suggests that working-class people struggle to provide emotional resources to those close to them. Using the concept of emotional reflexivity we show how these household members cared for each other's feelings, challenging deficit views of working-class emotionality. This research offers a novel understanding of working-class participants collaboratively making space for each other to feel, many favouring acts of care rather than talking. The COVID-19 lockdown, however, tended to reinforce gendered practices of emotion work, although some participants drew on emotional support beyond the household to try to mitigate this burden. The emotionally reflexive practices seen in these households suggest that sustaining more equality in emotional wellbeing relies on navigating material circumstances, is not always about verbal sharing, is often an interactional achievement, but also means resisting unrealistic expectations of intimate relationships within households as the fountainhead of all emotional succour.

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria in Australians with cystic fibrosis: A national survey

Introduction/Aim: We are seeing the rapid emergence of a significant new threat to CF survival;chronic nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection. This study aims to understand the aetiology and epidemiology of NTM in Australians with CF. Methods: Nationally, nine adult and nine paediatric CF services prospectively collected respiratory samples from people with CF (pwCF) for acid fast bacilli (AFB) culture at regular clinic appointments (Baseline, 6 months, 1 year, then annual to 4 years);associated clinical data, geographic and social data was also collected. Sites commenced recruitment between December 2016 and August 2018. Retrospective clinical and culture data were also collected to offset the shift to a telehealth model of care during the global coronavirus pandemic. Results: 15.1% of 1322 study participants cultured NTM (NTM+) from at least one AFB culture during the study, 5.1% of study participants were M. abscessus (MABS) positive. Adolescents and young adults (11-25 years) had the highest rates of NTM infection (19%, p = 0.0004). MABS was more commonly isolated in participants <25 years (6.7%) compared to participants 25 years and older (2.5%, p < 0.001). Of NTM+ study participants, 49% were incident cases. The species of NTM recovered from participants varied depending on the Australian state of residence, with South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania having greater diversity of isolated species. Conclusion: In Australia, during this sampling period pwCF <25 years of age were more likely to be infected with MABS than older pwCF. We hypothesize that this may be due to increasing attempts at eradication of Pa in early life and/or increased exposure from environmental sources at a vulnerable age.

Health Information Seeking Behaviour, Risk Communication, and Mobility During COVID-19

The existence of physical and financial barriers in the provision of healthcare leads to an increasing recognition that alternative sources of information are being used to supplement or replace the advice of healthcare professionals. Internet search engines are a common means to obtain health information. However. information, misinformation, and disinformation are all available concurrently, leaving health information seekers to distinguish these categories of information. Following a review of theories directly and indirectly related to health information-seeking behaviour (HISB). we examine how public announcements made by credible sources (e.g.. health professionals and politicians) in varying geographic regions (globally, nationally (Canada). and regionally (New York State) influenced both HISB (represented by Google Searches) and whether this influences human behaviour (represented by Google Mobility Data). Across these analyses, we demonstrate that there are strong correlations between information search behaviour and mobility around the time of public health announcements suggesting that, directly or indirectly, health communication was associated with changes in individual behaviour.

Bean There: coffee as a vehicle for change

Case overview: At midnight on Thursday, 26 March 2020, the South African government ordered a three-week lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently extended this lockdown for a further two weeks until the end of April 2020. Among other measures, businesses not classed as “essential” had to cease operation. This meant that Jonathan Robinson, founder of the Bean There Coffee Company had to close his trendy Cape Town and Milpark coffee shops, as well as the company’s hospitality and corporate business. At the same time, Bean There’s costs increased by 25%, as the rand: dollar exchange rate worsened substantially. A glimmer of hope was that the company was able to continue roasting coffee and supplying its retail clients. Unlike most captains of industry, Robinson was not driven by the bottom line and clamouring shareholders. His corporate strategy was driven by a single, simple purpose: to achieve ethical sustainability aspirations while still running a profitable business. The question for him now, however, was how to ensure that his company could survive in the short term, so that it could achieve these goals in the longer term, and whether he could take this opportunity to think about whether his business was best positioned to achieve these goals when things returned to normal. Expected learning outcomes: The learning outcomes are as follows: conduct a thorough analysis of a specific company and its industry, including its markets, competitors, and other aspects of the internal and external business environment, using a range of tools, including a Business Model Canvas (BMC), SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis;analyse and explain the market outlook of a company;identify and analyse a company’s competitors;discuss and explain a detailed implementation plan showing the way forward for a company, considering its current challenges, including integrating a range of conceptual and analytical fields of knowledge to assess a management dilemma, and arrive at a creative and innovative management solution;and be able to present information and defend substantial insights and solutions to a management dilemma in oral and written modes, appropriate in standard for both the academic and business communities to analyse and appreciate. Complexity academic level: Postgraduate Diploma in Management, MBA, Masters in Management, Executive Education. Supplementary materials: Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code: CSS 11: Strategy. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.