The pandemic in post-modernity and its implications for the concept of love

This reflection article presents the theme of love in the pandemic postmodern scenario, arguing the transformation of the concept of love according to the particularities that the containment measures for the Covid-19 have generated, understanding that the confinement and quarantines have been realities understood from particular experiences permeated by the economy, social reality, spiritual or philosophical reflection on the meaning of life or the impacts on mental health. The article offers an analytical reflection from a diversity of positions that help to understand the phenomenon of the pandemic in the postmodern scenario and the way in which it has transformed the concept of love. Thus, elements are collected that allow us to understand particularities of the Covid-19 pandemic in postmodernity, showing the diversity of experiences from which, it was signified and the way in which these meanings give particular meanings to the reality that this event represented for the humanity.

Do What You Love? New Music, New Work—After 2020: JM

This article analyzes musical labor and notions of love in relation to gig work with a focus on musicians in new music in New York City. Working in new music as a gig worker entails many skills, many tasks, and many jobs, which hardly guarantee a release from precarity. Meanwhile the neoliberal myth of a "labor of love” propagates the conviction that love and hard work can overcome any challenge, including those posed by racialized and gendered difference. The account of contemporary musical labor I offer concurs with recent critiques of the complicity of new music discourse with neoliberal agendas. Yet I argue that even as contemporary practices of musical work demonstrate how new music is entrepreneurial work embedded in a capitalist system, the everyday experiences of working musicians confound a totalizing account of the neoliberal agenda. Musical work takes place alongside and despite neoliberalism. Based on ethnography and interviews, I argue that the unsettled norms of musical gig work in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore ways in which musical work is more than the perfect manifestation of exploitable "labors of love.”

Kept apart: Routine family separation in the UK family immigration system as times of crises

The UK's family immigration regime involves the routine separation of partners from their families. Most obviously, it keeps apart those who are unable to meet the income and other requirements for family (re)unification, and those refused visas. But separation for at least several months, and sometimes much longer, is the norm even for those whose applications are eventually successful. This article draws on creative, co-produced accounts of immigration-related separation to reveal multi-faceted temporalities of crisis in the 'experiential migrantisation' of British citizens seeking to reunite bi-national families in the UK. The bureaucratic temporalities of immigration control impede aspirations for life-course progression and shared futures, while increasing the tempo of working and caring lives. In exploring the accounts of British citizens kept apart from partners by the immigration regime through a temporal lens, we chart this experiential migrantisation through the varied and intersecting temporalities of bureaucracy and immigration control, and of biography and (transnational) family life. These can become intertwined with and compound other temporalities of crisis at different levels, from the global Covid-19 pandemic and other international geo-political events, to the more intimate and familial, leading to 'times of crises'. Such crises are, moreover, often expressed through temporal tropes of key dates missed-birthdays, anniversaries, holidays-and phases of family life postponed.

VACCINATION AGAINST COVID 19 BETWEEN THE ACT OF LOVE AND APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE

Freedom of conscience is based on human dignity and protects the individual from external determination of his will. This freedom would be meaningless if it could not be practically realized in concrete life. Pope Francis called vaccination the act of love, placing it in a wider context of the commandment of love. Did he cause that the act illegitimately lost the possibility of the right to appeal to conscience? Doesn't the public authority itself take away that possibility and right by imposing the obligation to vaccinate? Although, due to its inherent complexity, the topic may not even allow clear and framed definitions, it does require some precision. Namely, if it is a question of the appeal of conscience for religious reasons, it is necessary to see if there are theological reasons to which these reasons refer to. For this purpose, in the first part, the article explains the connection between the act of love and the appeal of conscience, specifying additionally their internal connection in the context of the moral principle of cooperation in evil. Since vaccination crystallizes, from that part, as a form of moral obligation, the second part of the article explains whether this moral obligation can be legally sanctioned, that is, whether it can become a duty. This part also warns about the possible risks of an unscrupulous appeal to conscientious objection. At the end, there are concluding thoughts about the conscience itself, necessary for a more correct understanding of this phenomenon through which a person is admittedly brought before a difficult effort of reflection, but an effort thanks to which the person enters the space of inconceivable, ineffable and inestimable freedom. © 2023 University of Split. All rights reserved.

The pandemic in post-modernity and its implications for the concept of love

This reflection article presents the theme of love in the pandemic postmodern scenario, arguing the transformation of the concept of love according to the particularities that the containment measures for the Covid-19 have generated, understanding that the confinement and quarantines have been realities understood from particular experiences permeated by the economy, social reality, spiritual or philosophical reflection on the meaning of life or the impacts on mental health. The article offers an analytical reflection from a diversity of positions that help to understand the phenomenon of the pandemic in the postmodern scenario and the way in which it has transformed the concept of love. Thus, elements are collected that allow us to understand particularities of the Covid-19 pandemic in postmodernity, showing the diversity of experiences from which, it was signified and the way in which these meanings give particular meanings to the reality that this event represented for the humanity.

The Tale of a Complicated Relationship: Insights from Users' Love/Breakup Letters to Their Smartphones before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Smartphones have gotten under public scrutiny due to their ostensible negative impact on users' well-being. Nonetheless, users and related work report positive aspects of smartphones, too. We investigated this discrepancy through the prism of the emotional user-smartphone relationship by having people write love/breakup letters to their smartphones. We gathered 82 letters - 42 before and 40 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found a mixed nature regarding the distribution of love and breakup letters and associated emotions based on the revisited OCC-model of emotions - with a slight shift towards the negative emotional spectrum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we performed an extensive qualitative analysis of 819 user statements extracted from the letters, resulting in a connection of emotions to 17 smartphone features and eight themes of real-life consequences of smartphone use. We then identified eight common patterns of this connection, classified as smartphone roles. The collected letters mostly model a complex user-smartphone relationship, comprising different roles depending on users' inner and outer context. We discuss how HCI could help in shaping the complex user-smartphone relationship in future research and suggest supporting a healthy balance between users' daily life and smartphone use. © 2023 ACM.

Love, intimacy and online dating: How a global pandemic redefined romantic relationships

This book is an innovative work that explores the concept of intimacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an overview of the online dating world and apps, the use of which gradually became common as the pandemic restricted people's interaction in the physical world. The author's extensive research conducted during the pandemic posits a comprehensive understanding of the individual's motivation to join a dating app and explores its varied aspects. The book explores the themes and elements of online dating and examines the users' motivation for joining a dating app, for seeking intimacy as well as for self-presentation on the app. It examines the underlying politics and role of infrastructure of dating apps and describes how gender, power and intimacy intersect to create new intimacy phenomena. The book also utilises the author's research to put forth the key concept of 'Jagged Love', which describes a user's cyclical relationship with dating apps during the pandemic, and the gap between a user's act to seek familiar romantic narratives and the app's inability to deliver against these ideas. It explores the differences between virtual and In Real Life (IRL) intimacy, the generation of gender and the emanation of stereotypical cultural ideals that the users sought through the apps. The book serves as an invaluable discussion on the pandemic's impact on modifying the definitions of romance and intimacy. It highlights the impact social factors can have on familiar concepts and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the definition of love and intimacy, making it fascinating for students, academics and professionals interested in relationships, digital media and gender. The book will also be useful in enhancing the comprehension of love and romance in the fields of social science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Jesus and the Leper in Mark 1:40-45: A Biblical Theology Index for the Management of COVID-19 Pandemic

Jesus' response to the leper's request in Mark 1:40-45 tempers the harsh reality of laid down protocols for the management of leprosy. Against the physical distance of the time, Jesus takes the risk of touching the leper. He restores his battered dignity, heals him, and shows solidarity. The COV-ID-19 pandemic has stigmatized the human person as a weapon of infection. This situation has questioned the nature of man as a social being and impeded inter-human relationships. Using the synchronic approach of the historical critical method for the study of this text of Mark, this work compares the challenges of the leper in the ministry of Jesus with the threats posed by COVID-19. It concludes that both situations stereotype the human person and affect interpersonal relationships. It proposes Jesus' compassionate disposition and sense of solidarity as indices for the management of the COVID-19 crisis. © 2022 Strossmayer University of Osijek, Catholic Faculty of Theology in Djakovo. All rights reserved.

A framework for transitioning brand trust to brand love

Purpose: This study aims to propose a conceptual framework for transition of brand trust to brand love in an uncertain market situation, from the perspective of cognitive-emotion theory (CET). Design/methodology/approach: Since brand anthropomorphism is successfully established in branding research, this study takes cognitive characteristics of brand trust and emotional characteristic of brand love from extant literature to develop a conceptual framework for transformation of brand trust (cognition) into brand love (emotion). This study situates the relationship in the context of market uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses in the development of the conceptual framework by taking cognitive components of brand trust and brand behavioural characteristics as moderator, in uncertain market situation. Findings: Findings suggest that transition of brand trust (cognition) to brand love (emotion) is possible in uncertain situation, and brand behavioural characteristics moderate this relationship. Brand behavioural characteristics are brand innovativeness, brand ethicality, brand empathy, brand expertise and brand agility, which have the potential to further strengthen the relationship in the given situation. Research limitations/implications: This research proposes a conceptual model and propositions that add a rich understanding to the relationship of brand trust and brand love, which requires empirical testing in any brand category context. Through a richer understanding of conditions and the underlying psychological mechanism, researchers and marketers, brand managers, policymakers and so forth can gain insights that aid strategic decision-making. Trusted brands can leverage on the situation by highlighting unique behavioural characteristics to establish a strong and sustainable long-term relationship. Originality/value: The current research is an attempt to provide deeper insights from the perspective of CET, into the relationship of brand trust (cognition) and brand love (emotion) by introducing conditions under which a trusted brand becomes a lovable brand in uncertain market situation, thereby adding new knowledge to branding, customer-brand relationship sustainability, in uncertainty literature. The new perspective, that is CET, puts forward a novice view on the advantage of brand love over brand trust that could help in formulating strategic decisions in managing brands in crisis situation. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The love of pets in managing remote work challenges during Covid-19.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of employed individuals all over the world were obliged to work remotely during lockdown. This article focuses on the coping mechanisms which individuals used to manage this difficult situation, specifically the impact which loving and caring for pets had on the way in which people dealt with the challenges of the remote-working environment. Methodologically, this qualitative study used a phenomenological research design to understand the lived experience of the participants in the study. Ten qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with pet owners during the Covid-19 lockdown period in South Africa. The sample was recruited using purposeful and snowball sampling techniques. Data were analysed through content analysis while qualitative quality criteria were applied. Findings show pets supported their owners in many different ways during the pandemic and only the animal's presence supported the owners at home physically, psychologically and emotionally. They helped to reduce the stress of their owners and create a homely atmosphere. Pets played a specific role in providing love, companionship, strong emotional and affective bonds and by creating experiences of comfort, positive as well as negative distraction from work, and physical presence. The experience of love was one major aspect of the relationships between pets and humans. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are given with regard to future research, highlighting how organisations and consultants can use the positive influences of pets in remote-working scenarios.

Pandemic, love and everything in between: Uncertainty and stress from COVID-19 and their effect on relationship satisfaction

Numerous environmental factors have changed dramatically since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has yielded a wide-ranging impact both on the individual and the population level in various aspects, including family life and romantic relationships. Moreover, COVID-19 has many consequences that have led to mental health damage in general. The contradictory messages distributed by the media and the inconsistency in the government's responses increased the sense of uncertainty and tension. The current study will focus and examine the associations between three main factors: Covid-19 uncertainty, level of stress and relationship satisfaction. We hypothesized that there is a positive association between Covid-19 uncertainty and stress levels. On the other hand, there will be a negative link between Covid-19 uncertainty and relationship satisfaction as well as a negative link between stress and relationship satisfaction. In addition, we hypothesize that stress will mediate the link between Covid-19 uncertainty and relationship satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Masking morality in the making: how China's anti-epidemic promotional videos present facemask as a techno-moral mediator

The spread of Covid-19 has made facemask a critical artifact for people all over the world. Mediating between (non-)wearers and their environment, facemask makes people aware of a set of morally relevant distinctions and sometimes forces decisions on them. In fact, the semiotics of "facemask in use” largely shapes the parameters for human practice and experience in the epidemic. Drawing on the techno-moral mediation concept [Verbeek, 2008. "Obstetric Ultrasound and the Technological Mediation of Morality: A Postphenomenological Analysis.” Human Studies 31 (1): 11–26], we explore how anti-epidemic promotional videos released by Chinese authorities build facemask-related narratives in the Covid-19 epidemic. Findings reveal that "facemask in use” links people's "smaller love” for family to a "bigger love” for Chinese people in general;transforms an individual to member of a large group of commoner-turned-protectors;or marks the military's loyalty and obedience to the Party-State, which makes possible the "Chinese speed” in saving lives. We add to extant literature by unraveling an entanglement between the moralization of facemask-wearing and China's traditional values, social institutions and media newsroom culture about disaster coverage. This scrutiny into the "face-masking morality in the making” implies that the power to frame the cultural significance of facemask induces an alternative mode of techno-moral change, which may outlast the epidemic itself.

Love in the time of COVID-19: How couples stayed ‘at home' during the first lockdown in Italy

How did the initial COVID-19 lockdown affect family life in terms of household chores, childcare, finances, communication, sexuality and other spheres of a romantic relationship? How do these issues differ based on whether the couple is in a long-distance relationship, dating but not living together, or is married or cohabitating, with or without children? Drawing on a virtual ethnography of Italian social-media communities, sixteen follow-up online interviews with eight adult couples and a discussion of their ‘Corona diaries', this contribution extends a practice-based approach to focus on couples' experiences, feelings and coping strategies during the COVID-19 lockdown temporalities of Spring 2020 in Italy. Forced self-isolation eroded feelings of ontological safety, making especially non-cohabiting partners feel even more vulnerable to the stress of contagion risk and loneliness. This phenomenon in some cases even de-romanticized the relationship to avoid feeling the lack of the partner. On the contrary, cohabiting couples revealed a discomfort linked to ‘domestic gravity' and daily crowding, or the difficulty of safeguarding small moments of solitude. Conflicts were particularly exacerbated when partners had to reconcile agile work, childcare and domestic work. Working mothers with young children are among those most affected by the increased workload and resulting frustration.

Romantic love in the age of COVID-19

The article reflects on the importance of having a romantic love between the partners to cope up with the stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors decided to measure the love styles as romantic "attitudes," and did considerable research to develop a questionnaire to assess degree of agreement with the six love styles. Authors assumed that virtually everyone could agree to a greater or lesser extent with the questions reflecting each love style, and therefore people did not have to pick only one style as self-representative. Authors first published a long form of their scale called the Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) and later a shortened form of the scale named the Love Attitudes Scale-Short Form. Authors purpose is to propose ways in which these love styles/love attitudes might function in this incredibly challenging "in-your-face" time of COVID. The goal is to be helpful. As longtime scholars and marital partners (43 years), they are living this pandemic a day at a time, just as you are. This era of a global pandemic is unfamiliar and frightening to all who view its gravity in a clear-eyed fashion. Yet this is also a time when love and caring (in this case for a romantic partner) can deepen a relationship profoundly. We humans are far from perfect, but loving is in our nature. These love styles offer one way of viewing romantic, partnered love. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

In God We Trust: Community and Immunity in American Religions during COVID-19

From the systemic issues of race and class division to political partisanship and religious identity, the pandemic has affected many aspects of American social and political life. I interrogate the role that religions have played in communal identity-making during the pandemic, and how such identities shaped ideological responses, particularly in the US, stymying public health efforts to stop, or at least significantly slow, the spread of COVID-19. Drawing from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera as a historical case study, I use Garcia Marquez's depiction of religion's identity-making power during the cholera pandemic depicted in the novel as a comparison by which to understand current experiences of white Evangelical Christians in America during the current COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those who reject risk-minimizing practices such as mask wearing, quarantining, and vaccination. Drawing both from representations of Roberto Esposito's theory of immunity and community, and from Lauren Berlant's concept of "cruel optimism”, as well as sociological understandings of religion and identity, I argue that the boundary-making practices of religion and of communal and national identity are related to the complex and often contradictory set of moral practices that led many white Evangelicals to disregard public health policies surrounding COVID-19. A concurrent analysis of Garcia Marquez's novel and of current events will allow me to explore this phenomenon, as Lauren Berlant would put it, both through the historically affective aesthetic and through the affective present. © 2023 by the author.

How They Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (the) Restrictions? Reimagining COVID-19 Lockdowns-as-Liberative and Restorative: A Case Study of Somali Canadian Mothers

Le site de «l'un des mandats de maintien â la maison les plus stricts et les plus longs au monde», les confinements en Ontario sont devenus une source de discorde dans le discours public provincial - souvent compris comme restrictifs, épuisants et detestables. Cependant, au sein de ce groupe, il existe un groupe d'Ontariennes pour qui ces mandats étaient perçus comme liberent et réparatrif - un groupe (n=29) de meres Somaliennes canadiennes. Des entretiens individuels avec vingt-neuf meres Somaliennes ont révélé une réalité convergente qui s'écarte significativement de l'opinion publique dominante: plutôt que restrictives et isolantes, les confinements sont perçus par ces femmes comme libératrices et réparatrices, car elles offrent un répit prolongé loin de la Négrophobie (le racisme anti-noir) et l'Islamophobie négociés dans une société coloniale. La maison Somalienne enfermé offre â ses habitants doublement racialisés (noir, Musulman) la possibilité d'exister sans conséquence, car ils forgent une distance physique et psychique entre eux et les navigations quotidiennes de la subordination Négrophobie et Islamophobie. Cet article engage une lentille féministe noire pour examiner de maniere critique comment les meres contestent - dans leur maison -avec la marginalisation que leurs enfants Musulmans noirs négocient dans l'espace public urbain. En s'appuyant sur les perceptions des meres Somallennes du confinement, cet article avance l'argument saillant que, pour certains groupes marginalisés dans les sociétés coloniales, l'espace privé offre considérablement plus de libération par rapport â leur homologue public. Premier texte â considérer les confinements comme libérateurs et réparateurs, cet article contribue â la sociologie féministe noire, aux géographies canadiennes noires, ainsi qu'aux études sur la diaspora Somalienne au sens large.Alternate abstract:The site of "one of the world's strictest and longest running stay-at-home mandates," lockdowns in Ontario have become a source of contention within provincial public discourse, often understood as restrictive, exhausting, and detestable. Amongst this, however, there exists a group of Ontarians for whom staying-at-home is conversely perceived as liberating and restorative - a group (n=29) of Somali Canadian mothers. Twenty-nine (n=29) individual interviews with Ottawa-based Somali mothers revealed a converging reality which diverges significantly from dominant public opinion: rather than restrictive and isolating, lockdowns are perceived by these women as liberative and restorative, for they offer a prolonged respite from the anti-Black racism and Islamophobia negotiated in settler colonial space. The locked down Somali home provides its doubly racialized (Black, Muslim) inhabitants the room to exist without consequence, in part by forging physical and psychic distance between Somali mothers, their kin, and the daily navigations of anti-Black and Islamophobic subordination. This paper engages a Black feminist lens to critically consider how mothers contend - in-house - with the marginalization their Black Muslim children negotiate in urban public space. By leaning on the Somali mothers' perceptions of lockdown, this work wages the salient argument that, for certain marginalized groups in settler colonial societies, private space provides considerably more liberation relative to their public counterpart. The first of its kind to read lockdowns-as-liberative and restorative, this article contributes to Black feminist sociology, Black Canadian geographies, as well as Somali diasporic studies writ large.

Locked-down love: A study of intimate relationships before and after the COVID lockdown

Objective: To assess love and relationship satisfaction among dating and married participants pre- and post-COVID-19 lockdown in India. Background: Extant literature demonstrates the impact of stressors like terror attacks and natural disasters on intimate relations. Yet little is known about how a significant stressor like the COVID-19 lockdown will impact love among married and dating couples. Method: Data from a convenience sample of 100 participants (65 dating, 35 married) was collected in two waves, first in January-March and then in May after the lockdown. Participants completed an online survey with measures of love, relationship satisfaction, self-esteem, and how they spent time with their partner. Paired sample t test, correlation analysis, and thematic analysis were used. Results: For both dating and married participants, scores on relationship satisfaction, love, intimacy and passion were significantly lower post-lockdown compared with the pre-lockdown period. Commitment for those dating remained unaffected. Watching movies together and revisiting old memories was related to love for those dating, whereas for married couples, doing household chores, cooking, and watching movies together was associated with love. Conclusion: Passion and intimacy in relationships changed after the COVID-19 lockdown. How couples spent time with each other during the lockdown holds important implications for relationship satisfaction. Implications: Practitioners who work with couples must focus on ways in which couples spend quality time with each other. Norms that define a relationship, particularly with regard to participation in domestic work by men, must be revisited to adapt to the new normal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Love and Infidelity: Causes and Consequences.

This is a narrative review addressing the topic of romantic infidelity, its causes and its consequences. Love is commonly a source of much pleasure and fulfillment. However, as this review points out, it can also cause stress, heartache and may even be traumatic in some circumstances. Infidelity, which is relatively common in Western culture, can damage a loving, romantic relationship to the point of its demise. However, by highlighting this phenomenon, its causes and its consequences, we hope to provide useful insight for both researchers and clinicians who may be assisting couples facing these issues. We begin by defining infidelity and illustrating the various ways in which one may become unfaithful to their partner. We explore the personal and relational factors that enhance an individual's tendency to betray their partner, the various reactions related to a discovered affair and the challenges related to the nosological categorization of infidelity-based trauma, and conclude by reviewing the effects of COVID-19 on unfaithful behavior, as well as clinical implications related to infidelity-based treatment. Ultimately, we hope to provide a road map, for academicians and clinicians alike, of what some couples may experience in their relationships and how can they be helped.

Jagged Love: Narratives of Romance on Dating Apps during COVID-19.

The romance plot is one of the most pervasive narratives in Western society. It is a cultural masterplot: a story with which almost everyone is familiar, which can deeply and intrinsically shape the way we think about how we live. This article examines how people interact with the romance masterplot and how it affects their search for love on dating apps in Australia during the global pandemic in 2020. Using data drawn from interviews and focus groups, and combining sociological research and narrative theory, we explore the way the romance masterplot affects the way people approach romance in dating apps, and how this has been complicated by the pandemic. We propose that participants use of dating apps in this period was characterised by 'jagged love', which we have theorised in relation to Zygmunt Bauman's notion of 'liquid love'. This manifested cyclically, as participants turned to the apps seeking the security offered by the romance masterplot in a time of global uncertainty; swiped, matched, and messaged in large numbers, and lost faith in the apps ability to deliver on the romantic masterplot. While episodic behaviour on dating apps is not new, the pandemic heightened and accelerated the process as people desperately sought the certainty offered by the romance masterplot, quickly lost faith because of the limitations of the pandemic, and then returned again.

Perceived risk and booking intention in the crisis of Covid-19: comparison of tourist hotels and love hotels

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented a range of economic consequences for the tourism industry. Notably, this has been striking mainly because of the rising fear toward public places and travel avoidance. Vietnam has one particular market segment–love hotels–and these hotels have not suffered as much as the overall hotel industry. Applying Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and robustness test using Woodside's Accurate case outcome modeling (ACOM) of 2019 the study here confirms that: (i) Covid-19 knowledge increases conventional customer's perceived risk;(ii) Perceived risk (before and after Covid-19) have a negative effect on hotel booking intention;(iii) risk perception and booking intention of customers in two hotel types differ significantly, in which there is a preference for love hotels. Despite love hotels' remarkable market value, the academic attention to this special business model, has to date, been little researched. This research contributes evidence of asymmetric perceived physical risk as well as booking intention of the two market segments namely, tourist and love hotels. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.