Visible and invisible work in the pandemic: social reproduction and the ambivalent category of the essential worker

Feminist scholars and activists have long fought to make visible the fundamental but overlooked social reproduction work performed primarily by women, often in households. Taking on black feminist criticisms of the initial prioritization of the experience of white, middle-class women, these debates have developed into a broader social reproduction theory, which emphasizes the relationality of multiple forms of oppression under capitalism. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns, temporarily turned the traditional distribution between visible and invisible work on its head when many so-called productive workers were ushered into their homes, leaving only the most essential workers publicly visible in the streets and valorized in online spaces. The sudden visibility of these generally low-paid, often racialized and marginalized workers now coded as ‘essential' highlighted the importance of the work of social reproduction. However, the category of essential workers was ambivalent, in that by making visible some forms of social reproduction it continued to obscure others, especially familial care work and housework. In this article we analyse the ambivalent category of the essential worker and argue that it exemplifies, as social reproduction theory attests, that the capitalist production process always requires invisible labour, even as some previously invisible forms become increasingly visible. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Gender Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

List-keepers and other carrier bag stories: Academic mothers' (in)visible labor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted familiar rhythms of work and life when academic women from the United States sheltered-in-place in their homes. The pandemic brought forth challenges which accentuated that caregiving with little or no support disproportionately affected mothers' abilities to navigate their new lives inside the home, where work and caregiving abruptly collided. This article takes on the (in)visible labor of academic mothers during this time-the labor mothers saw and viscerally experienced, yet that which was often unseen/unexperienced by others. Using Ursula K. Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory as a conceptual framework, the authors engage with interviews of 54 academic mothers through a feminist-narrative lens. They craft stories of carrying (in)visible labor, isolation, simultaneity, and list-keeping as they navigate the mundaneness of everyday pandemic home/work/life. Through unrelenting responsibilities and expectations, they each find ways to carry it all, as they carry on.

Reaching Out: Using Social Media to Recruit ‘Invisible Groups': The Case of South Asian Women in the UK Experiencing Gender-Related Violence

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.

The Lack of Race and Ethnicity Data in Australia-A Threat to Achieving Health Equity.

Collecting meaningful race and ethnicity data must be part of the national agenda and must be one of its primary objectives in order to achieve public good and support public interests. Yet, Australia does not collect data on race and ethnicity, and prefers the use of collective cultural groups, whose information is not consistently collected and reported at all levels of government and service delivery. This paper examines the current discrepancies in race and ethnicity data collection in Australia. The paper begins with examining the current practices related to collecting race and ethnicity data and then moves on to examine the various implications and public health significance of not collecting data on race and ethnicity in Australia. The evidence suggests that (1) race and ethnicity data matter, are imperative to ensuring proper advocacy and to reducing inequities in health and social determinant factors; (2) that White privilege is constructed as realized or unrealized personal and systemic racism; and (3) the use of non-committal collective terminologies makes visible minorities invisible, leads to the distorted allocation of governmental support, and legitimises and institutionalises racism and othering, hence perpetuating exclusion and the risk of victimisation. There is an urgent need for the collection of customized, culturally competent racial and ethnicity data that can be consistently integrated into all policy interventions, service delivery and research funding across all levels of governance in Australia. Reducing and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities is not only an ethical, social, and economic imperative, but must also be a critical item on the national agenda. Bridging the racial and ethnic disparities will require concerted whole-of-government efforts to collect consistent and reliable data that depict racial and ethnic characteristics beyond collective cultural groupings.

Black women in white academe: a qualitative analysis of heightened inclusion tax

This article explores how existing issues of systemic racism in academia were heightened for Black women faculty during COVID-19 which coincided with high-profile killings of Black people in 2020. Several theories of cultural taxation have created space to discuss the nuanced experiences of marginalized groups in white spaces. In reflecting on academia, this article highlights "the inclusion tax” – the various labours exerted to be included in white spaces and resist and/or adhere to white social norms. While the 2020 pandemics reveal the deeply entrenched nature of systemic racism, they did not create the inequities Black women faced but worsened and exposed them. Using data from an exploratory, online open-ended survey of sixteen (n = 16) Black women faculty, we demonstrate how the inclusion tax heightened during that time. We argue that the inclusion tax negatively impacts Black women, adding significant invisible labour that further perpetuates racial and gender inequality.

Refugee camps as spaces of rescue in times of Covid-19: invisible mobilities in Bourj Albarajenah

This paper aims to explore the peculiarity of the pandemic in stateless communities. Through a case study from a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, we analyse how Palestinian refugees were affected by and responded to the pandemic. We find that the legal exclusion of refugees from the state protection has generated invisible mobility, which further increased the risk of spreading the virus. Refugees have founded their own community response mechanisms of food sharing and crowdfunding. They established Aman medical centre in the camp, which has become a destination for infected, yet undocumented, residents of the city. We conclude how Palestinian refugees used this invisible mobility to save other refugees, therefore proving how refugee camps can become spaces of rescue in times of global emergency. © 2022 Pacini Editore. All rights reserved.

Navigating white academe during crisis: The impact of COVID-19 and racial violence on women of color professionals.

Scholars have shown that women of color experience racial and gender aggressions in different workplaces but strategically in predominantly white institutions. This article explores how women of color professionals in academic institutions perceive their experiences during this time of multiple pandemics induced by COVID-19 and racial violence. By examining research on women of color in academe and other white institutional spaces, we discuss how systemic racism is embedded within organizational practices that sustain racial inequality. Drawing on data from a qualitative online survey of women of color in academe (n = 25), our theoretically grounded research employs Black feminist thought as a methodological practice to examine how COVID-19 and racial violence have impacted women of color through the continued perpetuation of racial and gender inequities. The findings provide important insights on how institutional responses to public discourses about racism can influence the experiences of women of color and their career trajectories.

Toward a More Inclusive Gig Economy: Risks and Opportunities for Workers with Disabilities

Little is known about whether and how workers with disabilities participate in the many on-demand labor platforms that make up the growing gig economy. Understanding disabled gig workers' experiences is a vital step toward developing inclusive and equitable labor platforms. Through interviews with 24 disabled gig workers and observational fieldwork, we present a rich, in-depth picture of the opportunities and challenges presented by four main types of gig work (ridesharing, delivery, crowdwork, and freelancing) for workers with a wide range of disabilities. We identify a key tension: gig work can be a vital source of needed income for workers who have been excluded from traditional workplaces, but at the same time, the structure of gig platforms present workers with a host of new disability-related challenges, including around algorithmic control and performance evaluation. We discuss how this tension plays out in terms of how workers engage in gig work and protect themselves from risk. We also call attention to how many workers can face complicated, intersectional challenges based on multiple marginalized identities in addition to disability, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Our work contributes to research on the gig economy by centering the perspectives of workers who are marginalized based on disability and other identities. We show how workers face several penalties based on disability, including shouldering extensive invisible labor to mitigate the challenges they face. Based on our interviews, we suggest several ways that on-demand labor platforms can be designed to be more inclusive of disability, including how to improve the accessibility of various tasks while mitigating the discrimination and negative interactions faced by disabled workers. © 2022 ACM.

Emotional Labor in Everyday Resilience: Class-Based Experiences of Navigating Unemployment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in the U.S

During the COVID-19 global health crisis, institutions, policymakers, and academics alike have called for practicing resilience to overcome its ongoing disruptions. This paper contributes a comparative study of the job search experiences of working-class and upper-middle-class job seekers, particularly in relation to their resilience practices during the pandemic. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 12 working-class and 11 upper-middle-class job seekers in the U.S., we unpack challenges resulting from both the pandemic and unemployment and job seekers' novel practices of navigating these challenges in their everyday disrupted life. Job seekers' ongoing negotiation with their resources, situations, and surroundings gives practical meanings to building everyday resilience, which we theorize as an ongoing process of becoming resilient. While job seekers across classes experienced similar challenges, working-class job seekers took on additional emotional labor in their everyday resilience due to their limited experience in the digital job search space, competition with higher-degree holding job seekers applying for the same jobs, limited social support networks, and at times, isolation. By foregrounding the uneven distribution of emotional labor in realizing the promise of resilience along class lines, this work cautions against the romanticization of resilience and calls for a more critical and nuanced understanding of resilience in CSCW. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Neglected from Societal Narratives and Minoritised Experiences of Invisibilised Asian Community Members in Canada before and during the covid-19 Pandemic

This study explores the experiences of Taiwanese, Hong Konger, Malaysian, Singaporean, and Vietnamese community members as invisible Asian communities in Canada before and after covid-19. Ten interviewees participated online in semi-structured interviews, and results showed that minoritised Asian communities had a different experience from hegemonic ‘Asian' community members in Canada because of their ethnocultural identities. Society's attempts to homogenise the experience of ‘Asians' has rendered the interviewees' ethnocultural experience invisible in Canadian society. These experiences stirred polarising sentiments among interviewees towards their ethnocultural identity. As covid-19 hit, daily anxieties surrounding both the pandemic and ethnic-related attacks came to the fore of minoritised Asian community members' concerns. Community members have been ambivalent about the impact of organised solidarity movements against anti-Asian racism. Given the findings from this study, researchers should consider disaggregating broad categories like the ‘Asian' category for future research as well as policymaking. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2022.

Black women in white academe: a qualitative analysis of heightened inclusion tax

This article explores how existing issues of systemic racism in academia were heightened for Black women faculty during COVID-19 which coincided with high-profile killings of Black people in 2020. Several theories of cultural taxation have created space to discuss the nuanced experiences of marginalized groups in white spaces. In reflecting on academia, this article highlights "the inclusion tax" - the various labours exerted to be included in white spaces and resist and/or adhere to white social norms. While the 2020 pandemics reveal the deeply entrenched nature of systemic racism, they did not create the inequities Black women faced but worsened and exposed them. Using data from an exploratory, online open-ended survey of sixteen (n = 16) Black women faculty, we demonstrate how the inclusion tax heightened during that time. We argue that the inclusion tax negatively impacts Black women, adding significant invisible labour that further perpetuates racial and gender inequality.

Stories from the Frontline: Recuperating Essential Worker Accounts of AI Integration

This paper aims to elevate essential worker accounts of the introduction of AI technology amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from a mix of ethnographic observations, interviews, and participatory design encounters with frontline staff, we examine the experiences of workers in a waste management facility in the United States newly tasked with overseeing autonomous floor cleaning robots. To complement and extend managerial and engineering descriptions emphasizing the functionality and performance of these devices, we used recuperative approaches to re-center the socio-material realities of workers on-the-ground. For example, workers reported concerns on the safety of the devices in congested areas and a need for more comprehensive training across all levels of the organization. This research seeks to expand the discourse on ethical AI by situating essential workers as a key source in developing best practices for deploying new technologies and evaluating pilot projects. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Students with disabilities and library services: Blending accommodation and universal design

This article presents the findings of a survey that was distributed to students with disabilities at the University of Georgia to gain insight into their experience with the university's libraries. Key findings include: students with disabilities cite as barriers many of the same things that the student body in general cites as annoyances, in-class instruction from a librarian increases use of library services and resources, and students with disabilities ask classmates and friends for research help more often than they ask librarians. Grounded in real-world practice and the literature on both library engagement and disability studies, recommendations for inclusive libraries are presented that incorporate Universal Design and accommodations, viewing inclusion as an ongoing action rather than a fixed state that can be achieved. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Academic Librarianship is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Social utility against work: Lessons from unpaid work and its struggles

As underlined by the conflicts surrounding both volunteer and domestic unpaid work which took place during the COVID-19 lockdown period: by no means everything that contributes to society is defined as work, and not all contributors are equally seen as workers. By emphasizing the normative dimension of this notion of social utility and the social relations that structure it, we intend to highlight the ambivalent relationship that this criterion for the recognition of activities, but also of people, entertains with the notion of work. Social utility is not just one possible criterion among many for objectively assessing and prioritizing the value of occupations, and thus improving the recognition of work, through work. It is also an operator of the denial of work as work, through the institutionalization and development of gendered and racialized processes of assignment to unpaid work. The analysis of unpaid work and its struggles thus invites us to shift the question of the links between recognition of work and social utility from inside the sphere of work to its frontiers and to reopen our definition of work in order to develop a response.

Use of science in public policy: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic efforts to 'Follow the Science'

The paper asks: 'What can we learn from COVID-19 pandemic about effective use of scientific and technical information (STI) in policymaking and how might the lessons be put to use?' The paper employs the political rhetoric of 'follow the science' as a lens for examining contemporary concerns in the use of STI, including (1) 'Breadth of Science Products', the necessity of a broader concept of STI that includes by-products science, (2) 'Science Dynamism', emphasizing the uncertainty and impeachability of science, (3) 'STI Urgency' suggesting that STI use during widespread calamities differs from more routine applications, and (4) 'Hyper-politicization of Science', arguing that a step-change in the contentiousness of politics affects uses and misuses of STI. The paper concludes with a discussion, STI Curation, as a possible ingredient to improving effective use. With more attention to credibility and trust of STI and to the institutional legitimacy of curators, it should prove possible to improve the effective use of STI in public policy.

Envisioning New Virtual Spaces for Performance and Theatre artists

Since 2020 working from home has, for many, become the norm since the outbreak of the COVID-19. Furthermore, with large public gatherings either prohibited, limited, or subject to social distancing measures live theatre performed in front of a live audience have been deeply affected. This project experiments with executing performances from home to enable theatre actors to continue to practice and connect with audiences. A series of experiments were conducted to test the possibility of having performers or actors conducting performance from their personal spaces and integrating their work using virtual reality in a combined space for an audience to engage with. This research aims to examine Virtual Reality as an assistive technology in contexts such as theatre performance and use of digital environmental design for actors and performers. The nature of this research project was to determine various scenarios in which a virtual 3D environment can enable, assist and/or enhance a theatre performance for both audience and the actors. For this project a 3D virtual theatre setup was designed, experienced and evaluated by participants drawn from theatre practitioners in the context of focus groups. This article reports on the design and practitioners’ responses and how it resulted in an informed VR solution for theatre performance. © 2022 IMCIC 2022 - 13th International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Appropriation of the Maker methodology to stimulate Invisible Learning in high school students in times of Covid-19

The current educational context is facing new educational challenges due to the worldwide proliferation of Covid-19. For this reason, it was necessary to generate a digital literacy oriented from a creative and innovative perspective, in this regard it was decided to apply the Maker methodological style, to high school students from the Arequipa region in Peru. Likewise, considering that education is being developed in homes under the E-learning modality, it was necessary to stimulate invisible learning, because its application offers many possibilities to develop skills, abilities, capacities, competencies that are not formally established in the curriculum and that are necessary for life;starting from learning by doing, promoting creativity and taking the context into consideration. The main objective of this study was to analyze the appropriation of the Maker methodology in the educational field to determine the impact it may have. The applied research methodology was mixed, and a survey was applied to 350 students, of both sexes, at the secondary level, whose ages are between 14 and 17 years old. This research study allowed to conclude that the Maker methodology, applied in times of pandemic, is effective to improve the learning and motivational level of students starting from learning by doing, experimenting, playing, creating, researching, and innovating, where the initiative and strengths of the students they are the driving forces for this development. © 2021 IEEE.

(In)Visible Tourism According to Online Cash Registers in Hungary, 2018–2020

The aim of this paper is to share innovations and some key lessons learned in the use of non-traditional data sources to improve data quality and enable more accurate and efficient data use in the field of tourism. Research on visitor traffic is based on classical statistical measures, but it may be worth expanding it with alternative data sources, such as databases based on online cash register (OCR) data. These data can be particularly useful for analysing tourism-related consumption habits in a given area. The study introduces the “invisible”, tourism-related, non-accommodation spending characteristics of transit traffic in Hungary, the possibilities of its analysis and spatial aspects, using online cash register data (includes all retail sales in Hungary, except for motorcycle purchases), and additionally, we identify the most affected municipalities which are invisible for traditional data sources. The results show that invisible tourism, linked to transit traffic, has significant economic potential. The analysis of this new type of database will provide a more accurate and faster picture of consumption associated with hidden tourism, which can be an important input for economic and marketing development.

Bodies of Proof: COVID-19 and Unwitnessed Remote Work: TCQ

Using a case study of four professionals who suddenly worked from home during COVID-19, this article discusses participants’ experiences of proving work when their bodies were not physically near coworkers (“proof”). I explain proof’s features;participants’ concerns and responses to it;its consequences for workers;and its potential devaluation of nonproductive, unwitnessed processes. I suggest technical and professional communicators are in a kairotic moment for negotiating the value of nonproductive time and unwitnessed work.

Colonization by Algorithms in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Data gathering and information processing have evolved to where it is almost unfathomable how much exists in digital form today. The generation thereof also no longer involves an explicit instruction from human to machine but can happen in real-time without human intervention. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cognitive computing are being utilized to mine data from a variety of sources. One such (profitable) source is human beings. Digital algorithms are designed to harness the power of technology to gather information. There has always been a sense of secrecy regarding some information (classified, top secret, confidential, etc.) but the Fourth Industrial Revolution has created the means to gather extremely large amounts of data, unknown to its sources. Anthropological value systems should become a fundamental foundation of digital algorithms. Such an approach could prevent software from exploiting its sources, especially minorities. Value systems together with ethics are guided by people’s culture. In ethically aligned algorithm design, value systems and digital technologies intersect and govern how algorithms are developed, the way data is engaged, and further the discipline of digital humanities. Author