CODA The Challenges of Establishing Academic Identities During Times of Crisis

This section of the book synthesises authors' contributions by reflecting on the key themes identified in the various stories told within the chapters. It briefly describes the impact that marginalisation, parenthood, mental health, and virtual participation had on the formation of academic identity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The section ends with the editors' thoughts on what was achieved in this volume, in addition to the challenges that lie ahead. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on socially marginalised women: Material and mental health outcomes.

There is little knowledge about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people who are socially marginalised, including individuals who face barriers when attempting to access services such as social safety nets, the labour market, or housing. There is even less understanding about women living under these circumstances. The aims of this study are therefore to examine the material and mental impacts of COVID-19 among socially marginalised women (compared with socially marginalised men) as well as influencing factors. The study is based on survey data (N = 304) involving people who are clients of social care organisations in thirteen European countries. The sample includes clients: a) living in their homes, b) in facilities, and c) on the street and in temporary accommodations. Results indicate that although material impacts were not significantly different for female and male respondents, socially marginalised women have experienced more severe mental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic than socially marginalised men. Female respondents have been significantly more worried about COVID-19 infection than men, and they report significantly more PTSD-symptoms related to the pandemic. Quantitative results indicate that these differences are related to the fact that the female respondents worry more about health risks (e.g. falling ill). Female respondents also seem to be harder hit mentally by the material impacts of COVID-19. Among the free text survey answers regarding the biggest problem for the respondents after the outbreak of the pandemic, the most prevalent reply (among both men and women) was related to material impacts of the pandemic (39% of the respondents), particularly the loss of work (65%). While women reported deterioration of social relations more often, men mentioned lacking access to services more frequently.

Information Intermediaries and Information Resilience: Working to Support Marginalised Groups

Information resilience has become a topic of interest to the information science community in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the vulnerability of information and other networks and the impact on information providers and the information seekers who rely on them. In an exploratory study, we interviewed support workers who act as information intermediaries as part of their work roles about their experiences of providing information to vulnerable and marginalised people during the UK COVID-19 lockdown. We present findings organised in three themes: shifting client information needs and support provisions, adjusting information sharing and communication practices and workarounds for physical information work. Throughout the themes, information resilience is evident as information intermediaries adapt their work practices to ensure they can continue to serve their clients. In this first stage of research our findings provide insight into the changes to information intermediaries' information behaviour and information work during a crisis, as well as the impact of these changes on the services they provide. 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology ;Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 ;Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.

Social Isolation in a Crisis in Hartmann Von Aue's Iwein

This article investigates the social isolation of the protagonist in a crisis using the example of Iwein by Hartmann von Aue. It is an Arthurian novel written around 1203 which depicts the adventures of the knight Iwein of the Round Table. The novel embodies various medieval topics such as the struggle for honour, loyalty, knight's duties and virtues, challenges, mythical and fantastic beasts, etc. Among these subjects, there is also the so-called crisis of a hero, which is represented by social isolation and mental illness, i. e. by the knight's insane behaviour. Thus, the depiction of Iwein's isolation will be interpreted, analysed and critically evaluated in relation to his illness and recovery in the context of the crisis. In addition, the function and the representation of this isolation in regard to the knighthood and court society of the time will also be examined. Therefore, this article attempts to answer the following questions: How is Iwein's social isolation depicted during his crisis and what role does this isolation play during the crisis in terms of his illness and recovery? What is the difference between isolation, loneliness and marginalisation in this novel? The crisis will be examined in the context of literature and literary studies and at the same time with reference to the social isolation. Using the example of this Arthurian novel, the crisis of the protagonist before and during the period of isolation will be analysed and interpreted with regard to overcoming challenges (physical and psychological), loneliness, despair and even madness. The previous research of this Arthurian romance focused mainly on topics such as the question of Iwein's guilt or madness. Especially, it is Iwein's phase of madness during his isolation that most of these works investigate, either in the context of illnesses as shown by Christine Saygin (35-60) or, for example, in relation to the adventures and the function of madness in Chretien's and Hartmann's version of this story as shown by Wolfgang Mohr (71). Saygin (59), for example, assumes that Iwein's insanity was created by the author to characterize Iwein's illness and is considered to be an "alternative to suicide". Saygin (59) also explains that madness "... perhaps also offers the knight the possibility of ultimately redeeming himself [...]".6In this paper, however, it is assumed that Iwein's isolation plays a crucial role in Iwein's illness and recovery and that his madness can only be interpreted as a symptom of this isolation. In this way, his insane episode is observed in relation to his isolation and not separately. The beginning of Iwein's state of madness matches approximately the beginning of his isolation -after his wife Laudine realized that he had not kept his end of their agreement, therefore their honour was violated. So Laudine makes the decision to part with Iwein forever, in order to avoid any more shame. At this point in the plot, Iwein's isolation phase begins, as described in the following verses: ,,nach einem dinge jamert in, / daz er w ae re etewa / daz man noch wip enweste wa / und niemer gehorte mare / war er komen ware." (Hartmann, V. 3216-3220)The phenomenon of isolation is often associated with the feeling of loneliness. Walter Haug (1), who deals with the subject of loneliness of the epic hero in works such as Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, "Gregorius" by Hartmann von Aue or Tristan by Gottfried von Stra ss burg, offers his own definition of loneliness. According to Haug (1), it would be better to avoid the term loneliness and instead use another term meaning "belonging to a society"7. Besides loneliness, one must also offer here a definition of the term isolation. Albrecht Classen (14) defines isolation using the example of Heinrich, Hartmann von Aue's Arthurian novel of the same name, as the withdrawal from society because of [Heinrich's] preparation for the coming death. In this paper, the absence of "being included in a society" 8 as defined by Haug (1) is considered as social isolation, and the aforementioned loneliness as yet another symptom of social isolation. Classen (14) also explains that Heinrich's (mental and physical) state does not change during his isolation, because it is closely linked to his illness and since the latter seems to be incurable, the isolation does not help him to overcome the crisis.The obvious difference between Heinrich and Iwein lies in the fact that Heinrich suffers from a physical and disgusting illness, while Iwein suffers from a mental disorder. Moreover, Iwein's illness reveals itself only during his isolation, which is not the case with Heinrich. For both protagonists, however, the isolation symbolises an exit from a shameful situation, i. e. they choose isolation because they were experiencing a crisis and can no longer bear the shame of the lost honour.Iwein's isolation from the society also symbolises his return to his innate nature. He gives in to primordial urges that forces him to seek safety and comfort in isolation. As a matter of fact, these are somewhat animalistic and wild needs that force him to act uncontrollably, as seen in the scene where he rips off his clothes and exposes himself. In a symbolic manner, he thus gets rid of the shackles of the court and the Round Table, as well as the negative feelings and the shame, and only then does his phase of madness truly begin. It can also be noted that up to this point in the plot, Iwein's thoughts and those of the other characters have been described and commented by the narrator on several occasions. However, in Iwein's state of insanity his thoughts are completely suppressed. The reader (or the listener) no longer gets glimpses into the hero's thoughts as they are restricted by strong, primal urges such as hunger or thirst. In fact, it could be said that, the knight acts as if he was stunned and his thoughts and mind were frozen in a coma-like state: ,,als in der hunger bestuont, / so teter sam die toren tuont: / in ist niht mere witze kunt / niuwan diu a umbe den munt. "(Hartmann, V. 3266-3270)Since the medieval perception of diseases, epidemics and mental disorders was strongly influenced by people's superstitions and beliefs, it is not surprising that Iwein's illness and healing cannot be traced gradually. He suddenly became insane, that is, sick and in the same way will he later suddenly be cured, by magic and without further explanation.Hence, his illness represents nothing more than a crisis, or a heroic crisis to be exact, that Iwein has to overcome. According to Vollmann (237), "the classic Arthurian hero is a crisis-prone and that is his strength."9 Moreover it can be observed that Hartmann von Aue introduces the hero's crisis into the story in an already familiar manner which corresponds to the so-called double path structure, because the crisis represents the turning point of the plot according to this structural model. Similar to his work Poor Heinrich, the knight falls into a crisis that is triggered by various factors that vary from illness (Heinrich), violation of honour (Iwein) to committing a serious sin (Gregorius). Aside from how the hero's crisis is triggered, it offers the protagonist his salvation by empowering him, so that he is able to overcome in future more difficult challenges. However, the reason for the occurrence of a heroic crisis is common to all these knights - when a large discrepancy between the knight's moral values or philosophies of life and the expectations and norms of the society emerges, a crisis occurs. Since this discrepancy requires a change in order to be reconciled, the knight can no longer remain in the society whose norms and traditions he does not conform to anymore, and this will often result in knight's isolation. In this case, Iwein isolates himself from the court and the Round Table, which he can no longer be a part of. In developing the heroic crisis, Hartmann uses a role model that is considered as the starting point of all ideas about a knight in a knightly society - at the court of King Arthur, it is Arthur himself who serves as a role model for all knights.If the members of a knightly society do not conform to the knightly role model, they may also be marginalized. This is the case with Iwein, whose previously mentioned new, untamed and wild way of life is perceived as insane by the court society. Consequently, he becomes gradually marginalized from this society. However, his isolation need not be considered marginalization if one assumes that Iwein has deliberately distanced himself from society. Auffahrt (340) defines marginality as: "a sociological model for people who live on the margins of society, that is, who are excluded from the privileges of those who determine society (this is not necessarily the majority of a society). Accordingly, they have a different view of the living world and develop their own values."10 The difference between marginalization and marginality here lies in the fact that marginalization refers to the process and marginality refers to the result of that process. Crewe (121) adds on the topic of marginality in literature that this phenomenon necessarily juxtaposes notions of "center" and "margin" in the context of Jacques Derrida's deconstructionist theories. In relation to the Arthurian novel, it can be stated that the Arthurian court, together with King Arthur along with his knights, represents the center of courtly society and, according to Wolfzettel (4), even the center of the world (Wolfzettel 4). Furthermore, the marginality in the Arthurian novel can be defined as a concept of representing characters who are either in Arthur's court (at the center of society) or outside the court (at the margins of society). Regarding the aforementioned definition of Auffahrt (340) Iwein can be seen as an individual onthe margins of society who is considered different from the center of his society or from the Arthurian court by "his view of the living world".The reason for the marginalization lies above all in the question of how useful a person is for the society, or in this case for the court society and for the Round Table. Using Heinrich as an example, it can be seen that the protagonist himself recognized beforehand that he could no longer be of use to his society and for this reason he opts for isolation. With regard to Iwein, a situation is shown where the protagonist cannot bear that his society sees him as an unworthy member. Therefore, he isolates himself from others before they can exclude him from the society and marginalise him. This can be seen in the example of the forest man, who was mentioned at the very beginning of the story and whom first Kalogrenant and then later Iwein encounter, while searching for the magic fountain. From the perspective of the knights of the Round Table, the forest man is perceived as a mad and a strange beast, also marginalized by the chivalric society. Similarly, it is now Iwein who evokes such reactions from others when they meet him. In other words, he has shifted from the role of the knight of the Round Table to the role of a lunatic resembling the forest man. What he once perceived as wild and inhuman about the forest man will not only known but also inherent to him. In the same way, Iwein is now seen as a madman from the perspective of the knights of the Round Table and the court society, for whom he has lost the qualities that used to make him human. Even though his humanity is not determined by this society, it is judged by it, which is why he no longer conforms to the idea of humanity at the court of King Arthur.Hence, what was considered to be the madness of Iwein is actually the madness of the Arthurian court and the Round Table. The madness of an entire society that forces a knight to reinvent his very essence, so that he could once again conform to the norms and role models of this society. Regarding that society, Sacker (5-6) argues that King Arthur is portrayed as a passive and weak figure and the Knights of the Round Table as useless members of this society. Furthermore, Sacker (8) explains that the depiction of the knightly duel and the winning of the ere through the murder of the opponent are actually symptoms of a society in crisis that lives by a flawed code that no one questions. Thus, the events and the transformation of Iwein that occur during his crisis can be seen as an ironical depiction of Hartmann's critique of a flawed medieval society and the knightly codex.Even though, Iwein successfully overcame his crisis, it can be observed that, in what was probably Hartmann von Aue's last Arthurian novel, a novelty in overcoming the heroic crisis was introduced. This is precisely Iwein's isolation and its role in overcoming the crisis. When it comes to healing his sickness, the isolation is a novelty in the structuring of the heroic crisis in medieval literature. The heroes mentioned earlier always sought an exit from difficult or unbearable situations in isolation and this is also the case with Iwein, but unlike them, Iwein uses the isolation as a shield against societal expectations and judgments, which allows him to rediscover his true purpose and inner nature in the isolation amidst the chaos and the balance of nature.The Round Table and King Arthur recognize the knight Iwein as a loyal, honourable, and courageous knight, but only after he had overcome all the challenges that were set before him after his isolation. In this respect, the novel also portrays a socio-critical dimension, which primarily refers to social double standards and the loss of identity of the individual within a society. Because of this, the court's attitude to Iwein during his isolation can rather be described as a hindrance on his path to recovery, while the isolation, on the other hand, has the value of a remedy for Iwein. In the end, the crisis that Iwein experienced up to this point in the plot disappears and the aforementioned discrepancy between his expectations and those of the court society is reconciled. In fact, the function of the isolation was to provide Iwein with a safe area in which he could heal without being hindered by outside factors or influences. His numbness during this isolation served as a shield against feelings of loneliness, despair, or shame. Since there are no expectations, mistakes, shame or misdeeds in the wilderness, his isolation helps him reconnect with his inner nature and find balance in his life. Thus, the power of isolation does not lie in the loneliness, but in the reflection of the solitude, which allows the individuum to rebalance themselves, far from the disruptions of everyday life. After all, even today, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, things are out of balance. However, this pandemic has brought to light that even now, perhaps more than ever, one has the possibility to reconnect with oneself and with one's nature due to the isolation.

COVID-19 vaccination intentions and subsequent uptake: An analysis of the role of marginalisation in society using British longitudinal data.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has previously been modelled using data on intentions - expressed prior to vaccine availability. Once vaccines became widely available, it became possible to model hesitancy using actual vaccination uptake data. This paper estimates the determinants of the joint distribution of COVID-19 vaccination intentions (declared before the release of any vaccine) and actual vaccination take-up (when it was widely available across the age distribution). We use high quality longitudinal data (UK Household Longitudinal Study) collected during the pandemic in the UK, merged to a wide variety of individual characteristics collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our estimation draws on pre-Covid values of variables for a sample that includes 10,073 observations from the September 2021 wave. The contribution of this paper is to model hesitancy and uptake jointly. The work shows that people who might be regarded as marginalised in society (measured, before the pandemic began) are less likely to say that they intend to be vaccinated and they go on to also be more likely to actually remain unvaccinated. It also shows that there is a large positive correlation between the unobservable determinants of intention and of uptake. This high positive correlation has an important implication - that information campaigns can be reasonably well profiled to target specific groups on the basis of intention data alone. We also show that changing one's mind is not correlated with observable data. This is consistent with two explanations. Firstly, the new information available on the arrival of vaccines, that they are safe and effective, may be more optimistic than was originally assumed. Secondly, individuals may have been more pessimistic about the effects associated with infection before vaccines became available.

Rethinking Visual Arts–Based Methods of Knowledge Generation and Exchange in and beyond the Pandemic

This inaugural special issue of ‘Beyond the Text’ brings together a collection of visual arts (animation, creative and fine art, film, photographs, and zines) produced by children, young people, families, artists, and academics as part of co-created research during the 2020–2021 coronavirus pandemic. Our aim, in making these pieces available in this new publication format, is to illustrate the potential of visual arts as a form of co-creation and knowledge exchange which can transcend the challenges of researching ‘at a distance’, enable participants and co-researchers to share their stories, and support different ways of knowing for academic, policy, and public audiences. This is not to suggest that such methods offer transparent windows into participants’ worlds. As the reflections from the contributing authors consider, visual arts outputs leave room for audience interpretations, making them vulnerable to alternative readings, generating challenges and opportunities about how much it is possible to know about another and what is ethical to share. It is to these issues of ethics, representation, and voice that this special issue attends, reflecting on the possibilities of arts-based approaches for knowledge generation and exchange in and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was horrible for that community, but not for the way we had imagined": A qualitative study of family physicians' experiences of caring for communities experiencing marginalisation during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 response required family physicians (FPs) to adapt their practice to minimise transmission risks. Policy guidance to facilitate enacting public health measures has been generic and difficult to apply, particularly for FPs working with communities that experience marginalisation. Our objective was to explore the experiences of FPs serving communities experiencing marginalisation during COVID-19, and the impact the pandemic and pandemic response have had on physicians' ability to provide care. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with FPs from four Canadian regions, October 2020 through June 2021. We employed maximum variation sampling and continued recruitment until we reached saturation. Interviews explored participants' roles/experiences during the pandemic, and the facilitators and barriers they encountered in continuing to support communities experiencing marginalisation throughout. We used a thematic approach to analyse the data. FPs working with communities experiencing marginalisation expressed the need to continue providing in-person care throughout the pandemic, often requiring them to devise innovative adaptations to their clinical settings and practice. Physicians noted the health implications for their patients, particularly where services were limited or deferred, and that pandemic response policies frequently ignored the unique needs of their patient populations. Pandemic-related precautionary measures that sought to minimise viral transmission and prevent overwhelming acute care settings may have undermined pre-existing services and superseded the ongoing harms that are disproportionately experienced by communities experiencing marginalisation. FPs are well placed to support the development of pandemic response plans that appreciate competing risks amongst their communities and must be included in pandemic planning in the future.

Addressing vulnerability and exclusion in the South African small-scale fisheries sector: does the current regulatory framework measure up?

Small-scale fishers and fishing communities have long suffered marginalisation and discrimination in South Africa. New laws and policies promulgated as the result of a court case brought by small-scale fishers, NGOs and academics attempt to rectify this problem. Drawing on the poverty-vulnerability-marginalisation framework, the paper considers whether this regulatory regime reduces vulnerability and marginalisation within the sector as an important precursor to poverty reduction initiatives, such as improved rights allocation. While the new regulatory regime is a step in the right direction, the paper ultimately finds that there are shortcomings in these laws, many of which have been thrown into sharp relief by the rights implementation process and COVID-19 lockdowns. These include narrow eligibility criteria for fishing rights, a lack of substantive solutions when it comes to vulnerable groups, processes insufficient to prevent elite capture, and impediments to the practice of alternative livelihoods. These shortcomings must be addressed through the appropriate expansion of access rights, consultation with fishers and more inclusive drafting, if the contribution of small-scale fisheries to development and poverty reduction in South Africa is to be realised.

From prison to pit: trajectories of a dispensable population in Latin America

The prisoner population in Latin America is highly vulnerable to violence and deadly disease due to overpopulation, understaffing and political neglect. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their situation. Drawing from empirical research in three countries – Argentina, Colombia, and Nicaragua – this paper analyses three phases of marginalisation in prisoners’ trajectories from prison to pit. Our analysis is structured by the triple marginalisation that stretches out from an experienced situation of ‘social death’ in prison, a legally imposed ‘depersonalisation’ of the dead prisoners’ body, and the ‘bare’ death of their plastic-wrapped bodies buried without any ceremony in a politically neglected cemetery. This process points to the everyday necropolitical production of marginal deaths and sheds light on marginalised populations’ moral conceptions of dying in pandemic times. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Mortality 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.)

"Who could breathe without hope..." Shame and shaming 4.0 during COVID-19 and beyond

The aim of this text is to develop specific theses on the interrelation between shame and shaming in the face of the corona pandemic. It refers to global and diverse cultural contexts and, from the perspective of Positive Psychology 2.0, pays particular attention to the efforts made by individuals and collectives to constructively manage and transform this crisis. As pointed out by different scholars during the previous year, the crisis evolved an immense physical, mental, emotional, social and economic challenge and has contemporarily massive legal socio-economic, cultural, political and humanitarial consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Hope in ‘catastrophic’ times: participants’ stories of nurture and transformation from an innovative community learning initiative

This paper explores the implementation of an innovative three-year (2017 to 2020) community learning initiative led by a partnership of third sector organisations in a district in the north of England. It explores the initiative’s arrangements for the design and delivery of a varied curriculum and assesses its impact on the lives of participants in a range of community learning activities delivered in diverse settings throughout the district. Around forty formal interviews were conducted with commissioners, providers and participants;informal discussions were held with more participants during thirty observations of community learning activities. The findings demonstrate how a person-centred approach engaged marginalised and vulnerable individuals (many of whom had struggled previously to engage in formal learning programmes) in learning activities. Examples illustrate the transformational potential of community learning in addressing the needs and interests of individuals, contributing to their progression towards higher level learning opportunities and the workplace as well as to enhanced social and emotional outcomes. As society emerges from the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic, the paper foregrounds this kind of sympathetic community learning provision as a means of supporting the continued engagement and development of individuals likely to be further marginalised by the impacts of the crisis.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017: furthering not fracturing marginalisation of those experiencing homelessness

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 represents the most significant change to the rights of homeless people in England for decades. Through an analysis of the history of homelessness legislation in England, but focusing on the ‘ground-breaking’ 2017 Act, this paper explores how the homeless population is represented and ‘constructed’ in this new legislation and what this tells us about the place of homeless people in our society. In so doing, this paper exposes how the 2017 Act – a state instrument of apparent homelessness prevention – can be read and understood as contributing to rather than obviating the marginalisation and social exclusion of homeless people.

Articulating a Museum from Absence: Emptiness in the Conflictorium beyond Pandemic Times

In this paper, we examine how the Conflictorium – Museum of Conflict in Ahmedabad, India, grapples with the complex and interrelated phenomena of emptiness and absence. We explore how emptiness at once appears, disappears, and reappears in museum spaces, and how activist curatorial choices around exhibition-making and community engagement intermingle with subtly enforced prohibitions (i.e., orchestrated or planned absences) from state actors. Accordingly, we discuss emptiness as both a spatial and discursive challenge, which mobilises tensions around what a museum ‘is’, what takes place in museums and who undertakes such actions.While we take note of the unprecedented phenomenon of emptiness in museums around the globe due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we nevertheless argue that emptiness has always existed in both traditional, larger-scale museums and in alternative (e.g., community-organized, self-funded, temporary or smaller) institutions. Emptiness can be perceived in various ways, but often manifests in privileging some narratives over others, excluding certain voices, bodies, and stories while granting others ample space on pedestals and exhibition walls.Forging a critical engagement with existing museum definitions, the Conflictorium considers a museum to be ‘nothing’ more than what its artists, curators and diverse audiences make of it – thus placing emptiness, as one manifestation of more structural absence, at its core. In accordance with this ‘negative’ approach to museums, we interweave political theories of conflict and antagonism (Landau et al. 2021;Marchart 2018) with critical museum studies’ accounts on the ‘radical democratic’ (Sternfeld 2018) and ‘activist’ museum (Janes and Sandell 2019) to conceptualise how emptiness can operate as a crucial component of (un)making museums as places for activism. In conclusion, the paper offers a conceptual discussion of activist museums’ political engagement with emptiness beyond pandemic survival strategies.

A figurational analysis of the role of the church in handling issues of widowhood amid Covid-19 in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This study sought to investigate the role of the church in handling issues of widowhood amid the rampant Covid-19 pandemic using Christian teachings and Ubuntu in selected parishes in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. Widowhood is a social phenomenon caused by a transition from married status to being a widow or widower due to the death of a spouse. Although a huge chunk of literature enumerates different ways in which widows have been ill-treated and treated as second citizens by communities over the years, this article argues that men grieve too and have also been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. There is undoubtedly little state of balance between men and women in societies, but the reality is that men can also feel physical and emotional pain due to the loss of a spouse and they too need support in order to be able to move forward after experiencing a loss. They therefore cannot be divorced from being part of an intertwined church figuration where the concern is in ‘process’, not ‘state’ (Elias, 1978). This study is gender inclusive in that it focusses not only on women but also a range of experiences of widowers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using figurational sociology by Elias (1978), this qualitative study adopted an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to interrogate the role of the church in the lives of the widowed during the pandemic. Selecting ten widowed congregants from different African churches in northern KZN as part of figurations, the study sought to explore what role the church has played to support the widowed when death occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. By using figurational sociology, widowhood research problems are perceived in processual terms with shifting asymmetrical power balances. Data was collected through praxis essays and semi-structured interviews of 5 widows and 5 widowers, with all participants purposively selected. Findings reveal that the church has struggled to provide care and support because of regulations such as social distancing and government prescribed alert levels which restricted movement in society. Even though the widowed understood Covid-19 regulations, they have felt alienated and marginalised during their period of bereavement. The perceived lack of support ruptured loyalty and fractured interpersonal relationships during and after the time of mourning. The study recommends new ways of pastoral care and advocates for a figurational care model as an arsenal to support people, mending relationships and restoring dignity. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

In-situ at a distance? challenges and opportunities for health and place research methods in a post-COVID-19 world.

In-situ methodologies, including go-along and photo-elicited interviews, are ideal for harnessing people's lived experiences of place and their meanings for health and health equity. Their immersive nature means that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their use. Physical distancing measures combined to anxiety over the sharing of physical space have created ethical and practical challenges to the conduct of in-person in-situ methodologies. However, in-situ methodologies are precisely needed to gain deeper understandings of people's changing relationships to place post-COVID-19. In this commentary we discuss emerging challenges, highlight questions researchers should ask before engaging in these methods in the future, and explore adaptations and alternatives to traditional in-person in-situ methodologies.