How policy failure and power relations drive COVID-19 pandemic waves

Elementary control theory and epidemic spread models illustrate the deadly impacts delay in recognizing pandemic threat and failure of institutional cognition in facing that threat can have on the institutions of public health. While short delays may cause some oscillation that rapidly dies out, sufficiently large time gaps trigger multiple infection waves of increasing severity, much like the onset of a power network blackout or of uncontrollable vehicle fishtailing. Similar-and synergistic-oscillations are found to be triggered by sufficiently low rates of institutional cognition. This approach begins to lift the cultural constraints inherent to host-pathogen population dynamics models of infectious disease in social systems sculpted by the synergisms of geography, power relations, and path-dependent historical trajectory. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

Designing for the Embedding of Employee Voice

Previous research on employee voice has sought to design technological solutions that address the challenges of speaking up in the workplace. However, effectively embedding employee voice systems in organisations requires designers to engage with the social processes, power relations and contextual factors of individual workplaces. We explore this process within a university workplace through a research project responding to a crisis in educational service delivery arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a successful three-month staff-led engagement, we examined the intricacies of embedding employee voice, exploring how the interactions between existing actors impacted the effectiveness of the process. We sought to identify specific actions to promote employee voice and overcome barriers to its successful establishment in organisational decision-making. We highlight design considerations for an effective employee voice system that facilitates embedding employee voice, including assurance, bounded accountability and bias reflexivity. © 2023 ACM.

Is technology neutral for MSEs? Interdependencies, information transparency and power imbalances in e-commerce ecosystems

Despite the evident upsurge of e-commerce (EC) over the past decades, the peak of online demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the huge involvement of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the online businesses to survive, the extant literature has neglected to analyse how MSEs orchestrate their resources between internal and external investments. Past studies, also in the case of SMEs, have tended to adopt a more firm-centric perspective focusing on the organisational conditions that determine firms' performance after the usage of EC, failing to explore the inter-organisational relations between MSEs and other actors in their ecosystem. Indeed, as MSEs may suffer from liability of smallness and lack of resources, they may rely more than other actors on the nexus of relations that emerge within the digital ecosystem generated through the usage of EC platforms. By relying on 37 interviews with owners or managers of MSEs operating in the food and beverage industry, we investigate the dynamics of resource distribution between MSEs and the other actors in the EC ecosystem. We identified the changes in interdependencies, the information asymmetries, and the power imbalances related to the interplay between MSEs and other actors within the EC ecosystem. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Singapore in 2022: Resolving Political Succession amid Growing Geopolitical Uncertainties

As in 2021, Singapore in 2022 remained largely in crisis mode despite resolving the keystone issue of political succession, with a prime-minister-in-waiting clearly in place. Still, COVID-19, together with the continued US–China economic and political conflicts, the negative fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the anticipation of a possible recession in 2023, continued to cast dark clouds over Singapore and its politico-economic future. These developments were somewhat counterbalanced by positive developments in regional diplomacy, which acted as possible shock absorbers of negative fallout from outside the region. Still, Singapore appears to be at a crossroads, with political changes at home being challenged by external developments, and with the shape of things to come in Singapore remaining largely unknown.

Is technology neutral for MSEs? Interdependencies, information transparency and power imbalances in e-commerce ecosystems: Journal international de la gestion technologique

Despite the evident upsurge of e-commerce (EC) over the past decades, the peak of online demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the huge involvement of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the online businesses to survive, the extant literature has neglected to analyse how MSEs orchestrate their resources between internal and external investments. Past studies, also in the case of SMEs, have tended to adopt a more firm-centric perspective focusing on the organisational conditions that determine firms' performance after the usage of EC, failing to explore the inter-organisational relations between MSEs and other actors in their ecosystem. Indeed, as MSEs may suffer from liability of smallness and lack of resources, they may rely more than other actors on the nexus of relations that emerge within the digital ecosystem generated through the usage of EC platforms. By relying on 37 interviews with owners or managers of MSEs operating in the food and beverage industry, we investigate the dynamics of resource distribution between MSEs and the other actors in the EC ecosystem. We identified the changes in interdependencies, the information asymmetries, and the power imbalances related to the interplay between MSEs and other actors within the EC ecosystem.

Torn apart! Transnational feminist researchers' geopolitical positionality in (pre-) COVID-19 times

In this article, we examine the 'geopolitical positionality' of transnational feminist researchers caught between hostile countries (home-field). We define geopolitical positionality as the researchers' position influenced by international politics, discourses, and practices by core powers and hegemonic states. By revisiting our fieldwork experiences, we interrogate how our geopolitical positionalities have a great impact on the process of feminist knowledge production and researchers' well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In the era of global trade wars, the geopolitical positionality of transnational researchers requires more scholarly attention;however, a focus on this geopolitical positionality remains practically nonexistent in feminist geography. This article works to fill this void by reflecting on our fieldwork experiences in the geopolitical tensions between China and the US (for Ruwen Chang) and between South Korea and Japan (for Jaeyeon Lee). By sharing our vulnerabilities and hardships concerning our fieldwork prior to and during the COVID-19 crisis, we aim to accomplish two goals. First, by showing the vulnerability of transnational feminist researchers who are caught between hostile countries (home-field), we hope to create a space of compassion and support in/beyond academia. Second, with our analysis of geopolitical positionality, we demonstrate that transnational knowledge is precariously produced across imaginary and material boundaries between the personal, the academic, the national, and the geopolitical.

Introduction: Pandemic Perspectives – Doing Research Differently During Covid-19*

This article situates, against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis and the many systemic inequalities the pandemic has highlighted, challenges and opportunities for researchers and commissioners of research. It provides examples from social science research of how researchers have demonstrated agility and adaptation during the pandemic in a range of contexts. It summarises findings and lessons around access and engagement, consent, ethics and incentives, and power and perspectives. It concludes that research supported by the Covid Collective is providing useful insights for doing research differently, which in turn provides real hope for research to help transform knowledge and transform lives. © 2022 The Authors. IDS Bulletin, Institute of Development Studies and Crown 2022.

Antimicrobial Resistance Research Collaborations in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities to Equitable Partnerships.

Antimicrobial Resistance is recognized as a major threat to global health security. The WHO Southeast Asia region is dubbed a "global hub for AMR emergence", as it runs the highest risk for AMR emergence among all WHO regions in Asia. Hence, there is a need for Asia-centric, collaborative AMR research aligned with the true needs and priorities of the region. This study aimed to identify and understand the challenges and opportunities for such collaborative endeavors to enhance equitable partnerships. This qualitative study adopted an interpretative approach involving a thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews with AMR experts conducting research in the region. The study identified several factors influencing research collaborations, such as the multi-dimensional nature of AMR, limited or lack of funds, different AMR research priorities in Asian countries, absence of Asia-centric AMR leadership, lack of trust and, unequal power relationships between researchers, and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in research collaborations. It also identified some opportunities, such as the willingness of researchers to collaborate, the formation of a few networks, and the prioritization by many academics of the One Health paradigm for framing AMR research. Participants reported that the initiation of stronger cross-discipline and cross-country networks, the development of Asia-centric AMR leadership, flexible research agendas with shared priorities, transparent and transferable funds, and support to enhance research capacity in LMICs could assist in developing more equitable collaborative research in Asia.

A Novel Public Opinion Polarization Model Based on BA Network

At present, the polarization of online public opinion is becoming more frequent, and individuals actively participate in attitude interactions more and more frequently. Thus, online views have become the dominant force in current public opinion. However, the rapid fermentation of polarized public opinion makes it very easy for actual topic views to go to extremes. Significantly, negative information seriously affects the healthy development of the social opinion ecology. Therefore, it is beneficial to maintain national credibility, social peace, and stability by exploring the communication structure of online public opinions, analyzing the logical model of extreme public attitudes, and guiding the communication of public opinions in a timely and reasonable manner. Starting from the J–A model and BA network, this paper explores the specific attributes of individuals and opinion network nodes. By incorporating parameters such as individual conformity and the strength of individual online relationships, we established a model of online group attitude polarization, then conducted simulation experiments on the phenomenon of online opinion polarization. Through simulations, we found that individual conformity and the difference in environmental attitude greatly influence the direction of opinion polarization events. In addition, crowd mentality makes individuals spontaneously choose the side of a particular, extreme view, which makes it easier for polarization to form and reach its peak.

CORONAVIRUS EXACERBATES XENOPHOBIA: DECONSTRUCTING OTHERNESS IN THE TWITTER

Free speech is not a licence for racists to spread racist propaganda. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 and its subsequent dissemination through social media has left a shock wave of disbelief resulting xenophobia in society. By looking from the lens of 'Othering,' this study tries to delve into revealing the representation of xenophobia resulting otherness amidst Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study considers a set of tweets related to #clustertabligh and several types related to the tabligh cluster to represent the otherness. The data were collected through a random sampling technique using machine learning tools Twitter API and processed using JSON format. The results lead to a discussion of power between social networks by intertwining the machine learning tools in social science and humanities studies. This study also looks at blame allotting, a typical social reaction to an outbreak, and an even more typical general media system. Malaysia needs to take actions by recognizing the distinctive levels of hateful racial online content brewing and addressing it systematically and proportionately. (C) 2021 Published by European Publisher.

Singapore in 2021: Confronting Internal and External Challenges

Singapore remained in crisis mode in 2021, a situation that persisted from 2020. While COVID-19 continued to devastate various foundations of Singapore, especially the economy and public confidence in the government, a political succession crisis threw the republic deeper into uncharted territory. These developments are likely to have long-term consequences, especially for the staying power of government in what is a one-dominant-party state.

Coronavirus exacerbates xenophobia: Consciousness of Twitter posting during the pandemic

Free speech is not a license for racists to spread propaganda. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 and its subsequent spread across the globe has left a shocking wave of disbelief resulting in an upsurge of xenophobia in the society. Racism is a system of dominance and power designed to uphold the racially privileged. This study delves into the consciousness of Twitter postings during the COVID-19 pandemic and deconstructs the power dynamics in the hashtags used. The study's data was analysed using Twitter Application Programming Interface (API) to identify the representation within tweet sample sets. The study concludes that social interactions on Twitter constructs power dynamics and these shared values create a new form of power resistance and subjugated knowledge. This leads to a discussion of power between social media intertwined with the machine learning tools in social science and humanities studies. This study contributes to the academic debates about the public sphere and social media's role in constructing meaning in cultural and social change. It also suggests that Twitter develops policies to prohibit hate speech and impose regulations to ensure that online spaces remain civil, safe, and democratic.

Government Targeting of Refugees in the Midst of Epidemics

We investigate how the outbreak of epidemics can affect host governments' targeting of refugees and violation of their physical integrity rights. We argue that governments target repression against refugees for two reasons. First, refugees are easily scapegoated for the arrival of epidemics at a time when governments are looking to shift the blame for their own poor performance. Second, crises provide circumstances for governments to engage in opportunistic repression to further their goal of coercing existing refugees to depart and deterring new refugees from arriving. Drawing upon a global dataset of countries for the years 1996 to 2015, we demonstrate that epidemic outbreaks do indeed increase the likelihood and scale of government repression targeting refugee populations. These effects are especially pronounced in countries with higher proportions of refugees hosted and in less democratic countries. Identification of this potential for government repression of refugees during epidemics is important in light of the grave scale of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest the international community should be vigilant for signs of governments' mistreatment of vulnerable refugee populations to shift focus away from their own poor handling of crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and opportunistically advance their goal of reducing the numbers of refugees hosted locally.

Affective politics of care during covid-19: Feminist views of political discourses and intersectional inequalities in Mali

»Affektive Politiken der Sorge während COVID-19: Feministische Blickwinkel auf Politische Diskurse und intersektionale Ungleichheiten in Mali«. Contrary to many African states’ restrictive COVID-19 measures in the first half of 2020, which had severe socio-economic and political effects, the Malian government appeared more moderate in its fight against the pandemic and even introduced social measures to alleviate the effects of COVID-19 (measures). However, increasing anti-government protests still culminated in a military coup in August 2020. In order to shed light on government communication during that time as one factor in this paradox, this article focuses on the politics of care constructed by the Malian political elite between March and August 2020. The article uses an affective-discursive approach to analyse government communications and contrasts them with a feminist view of as-sociations, NGOs, and activists. It shows that postcolonial, capitalist, and gendered path dependencies have decreased opportunities for care from the Malian state and increased the intersectional vulnerabilities of Malians to COVID-19 measures. In addition, the article demonstrates how the affective politics of domestic and international care that were maintained through the presidential discourse used securitisation and solidarity to construct subject positions that, however, incorporate rather than challenge the aforemen-tioned inequalities. © 2021, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. All rights reserved.

Contemporary Philanthropy in the Spotlight: Pushing the Boundaries of Research on a Global and Contested Social Practice.

This article is intended as the leading article in a special issue devoted to the achievements, limitations, opportunities and risks entailed in the research and practice of contemporary philanthropy. The article first characterizes philanthropy as a highly diverse and dynamic set of social practices that has only recently been subject to the systematic scrutiny of an emerging field of research, parallel to its rapid transformation and increased societal visibility. The main debates that emerged during the last two decades while researching the complexities of contemporary philanthropy are contextualized from the perspective of multiple disciplines; and the main foci for contentious conceptualizations and societal expectations explored. In this context, contributions of the special issues are summarized. Further avenues for pushing the boundaries of philanthropy research in ways inclusive of the dynamism, diversity, multi-disciplinarity and controversy that characterize the field, while at the same time providing meaningful answers to societal concerns about the potential and shortcomings of new philanthropic practices, are drawn.

COVID-19 and Power in Global Health.

Political scientists bring important tools to the analysis of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, particularly a focus on the crucial role of power in global health politics. We delineate different kinds of power at play during the COVID-19 crisis, showing how a dearth of compulsory, institutional, and epistemic power undermined global cooperation and fueled the pandemic, with its significant loss to human life and huge economic toll. Through the pandemic response, productive and structural power became apparent, as issue frames stressing security and then preserving livelihoods overwhelmed public health and human rights considerations. Structural power rooted in economic inequalities between and within countries conditioned responses and shaped vulnerabilities, as the crisis threatened to deepen power imbalances along multiple lines. Calls for global health security will surely take on a new urgency in the aftermath of the pandemic and the forms of power delineated here will shape their outcome.