Information technology & media sociology in a (still) pandemic world

The current period of disruptive social change is inextricably bound up with new means and modes of communication, information, and media streams. The Communication, Information Technologies & Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS) locates these factors at the center of our collective interests, investigating them through a plethora of methods, theories, and empirical cases. Each year, CITAMS runs a special issue in ICS showcasing select works presented at the previous year's American Sociological Association conference and the affiliated Media Sociology preconference. Papers in the 2022 CITAMS Special Issue reflect a social context defined by a prolonged global pandemic and wrought by democratic uncertainty. Across these social circumstances, technology and media loom large. Simultaneously, everyday life continues and classic CITAMS scholarship sustains relevance for the ways people interact, construct identity, consume, and mobilize. All of this and more are contained in the pages of this year's Special Issue, from which readers can get a sense of what CITAMS has to offer and consider how their own work may fit within the broad CITAMS umbrella. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, 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.

Breeding Hope during the Crisis: A Study on Unemployed Laborers' Willingness to Receive Educational Compensation under the Chinese "Zero-COVID” Policy

Under the Chinese "Zero-COVID” policy, many laborers were forced out of work. Participating in educational compensation can effectively help unemployed laborers achieve re-employment. This paper selected Jining, Shandong Province, as the research area, analyzed the data using a questionnaire survey and key interviews, and observed factors that affect and change willingness to receive educational compensation (WTEC) and the willingness to accept the training duration (WTTD) of unemployed laborers. The study found that 77.78% of unemployed laborers are willing to receive educational compensation, and the WTTD is 12.05 days. Among them, eight factors affect WTEC, such as the years of education, the duration of unemployment, whether there are dependents in the family, and the family's size. Nine factors such as gender, age, education, unemployed duration, dependents, and other supportable incomes affect WTTD. Based on this, by taking measures from the government and laborers, WTEC and WTTD can be improved, and then the rate of re-employment can be enhanced, and finally, the employment problem can be ameliorated.

The exclusive countryside post‐pandemic

The processes through which the British countryside has become increasingly socially exclusive have been a theme of rural scholars' research since the 1970s, and these social changes are reflected in experiences of the pandemic. This paper begins by observing the central importance of power relations, and then discusses the pivotal role of housing as a motor of rural social change and exclusivity. Notwithstanding these processes, and indeed largely because of these asymmetric power relations, rural poverty remains. This paper summarises experiences of social exclusion in rural areas during the pandemic and reflects on the social redistribution of risk and the need to rebuild social protection in a continuing ‘permacrisis'. The emergence of the concept of the permacrisis indicates a recognition that the Covid‐19 pandemic is only one of a series of continuing or recurring challenges or potential ‘shocks' that we face, and this paper concludes by suggesting a research agenda for rural scholars as well as a potential rural policy agenda. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Geographical Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Critical discourse studies and 'times of crisis': a proposal for re-existences based on Critical Aquilombage and Pragmatic Networks perspectives

The purpose of this reflection is to contribute to the debate on Critical Discourse Studies, through the presentation of original theoretical-methodological possibilities of anti-colonial nature, attentive and committed to the citizen struggle. Therefore, as a scenario of reflection and potential epistemological and methodological application, the concept of Critical Aquilombage – CA – (SANTOS, 2019;2021;2022) is described and applied in intersection with the concept of Pragmatic Networks – PR – (SANTOS, 2017;2019);the 'discourse of crisis' (located in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil) is used as illustration for the analysis. In the text, theoretical-methodological understandings related to discourse are developed, as well as the critical discourse analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003;2010;RESENDE, 2019) oriented to the consolidation of reexistence movements (SOUZA, 2009;2011). In this way, a critical reflection and potential application of the epistemological-methodological-ontological enterprise CA-PR are presented, approaching them to the problematization of the term 'crisis'. Finally, it is possible to argue that the term ‘crisis' has been strategically used by social representants of symbolic and material power to operate the existential emptiness of Black People, operating the non-existence process (that is, sophisticated discursive movements in which existences are affected and erased, to the detriment of few others – which ones, for centuries, have continued to manipulate language and society in order to maintain places of social privilege and prestige): on the other hand, the critical-reflective use of texts can point to new modes of resistance. © 2022 Thesaurus Editora de Brasilia Ltda.. All rights reserved.

Understanding Post-COVID-19 Social and Cultural Realities: Global Context

This book concentrates on the changing patterns of work and global social order as a result of COVID-19. It scrutinizes these changes in order to point out the possible reasons for these changes following COVID-19. It sheds light on the differences between the condition of underdeveloped and developed countries, focusing on how they struggle to find ways of coping. The pandemic has changed the global social order. It has an impact on every aspect of life around the globe, from individual relationships to institutional operations and international collaborations. Societies are endeavoring to protect themselves despite severe restrictions, while the pandemic continues to upset family relations and overturn governance. COVID-19 has made it clearer than ever before that where many strains on the social sector occur, the current global system, with its interconnectedness and vulnerabilities, is under threat. Due to the changing patterns of economic and societal elements caused by COVID-19, further research is urgently needed to analyze these changing trends. The book portrays what work and the global social order will look like in the future. It is essential reading for anyone interested in these changes and the pst-COVID-19 reality. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022, corrected publication 2022.

Imagining Life Beyond a Crisis: A Four Quadrant Model to Conceptualize Possible Futures

In this article we report evidence from a series of semi-structured interviews with a broad sample of people living in Denmark (n = 21), about their perspectives on the future during the first months of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The thematic and discursive analyses, based on an abductive ontology, illustrate imaginings of the future along two vectors: individual to collective and descriptive to moral. On a descriptive and individual level, people imagined getting through the pandemic on a myopic day-by-day basis;on a descriptive and collective level, people imagined changes to work and socializing. Their future was bound and curtailed by their immediate present. On a moral and individual level, respondents were less detailed in their reports, but some vowed to change their behaviors. On a moral and collective level, respondents reported what the world should be like and discussed changes to environmental behaviors such as traveling, commuting, and work. The model suggests the domain of individual moral imaginings is the most difficult domain for people to imagine beyond the practicalities of their everyday lives. The implications of this model for comprehending imaginations of the future are discussed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Culture & Psychology is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

(Co-)learning and (Co-)evaluation in Scholarly Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities in the Covid-19 Era

The study aims at exploring the influence of global coronavirus pandemic on teaching, learning and evaluation processes involved in Higher Education (HE) by analysing the way in which knowledge exchange is reframed through ICTs and technology. Through the interpretative lens of Service Dominant logic, the chapter rereads HE as an ecosystem and investigates theoretically: (1) the transformations introduced in information management, technology adoption, resource integration, value co-creation and co-learning processes to challenge the sanitary emergency;(2) the way in which the adoption of this transformation can redefine the rules, practices and institutions in Higher education system. The results identify the different tech-nological touchpoints that can be implemented in teaching, learning and evaluation to boost co-learning and the different mechanisms that can foster the emergence of social change and innovation. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Meeting the challenge of gender inequality through gender transformative research: lessons from research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

While the global development agenda has prioritized gender equality, many challenges remain, and the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated inequalities. Gender transformative approaches to social change have the potential to address the underlying causes of inequality. This paper draws insights from studies funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre to understand how integrating gender transformative approaches to research can support social change. The findings suggest that gender transformative research is most successful in supporting change when it analyzes and addresses the multiple causes of inequality, takes an intersectional and structural approach, embeds the research in local contexts, and engages power holders and perpetrators of inequality.Alternate :RÉSUMÉSi les objectifs de développement mondial ont donné la priorité à l'égalité des genres, il y a encore de nombreux défis à relever dans ce domaine et la crise de la COVID-19 a exacerbé les inégalités. Les approches transformatrices du genre nous permettent de faire face aux causes sous-jacentes de ces inégalités. Cet article base son analyse sur des études financées par le Centre de recherches pour le développement international, au Canada, et vise à mieux comprendre comment l'adoption d'approches transformatrices du genre dans le contexte de la recherche peut appuyer le changement social. Nos résultats suggèrent que la recherche se basant sur une approche transformatrice du genre a de meilleurs chances d'inciter des changements sociaux lorsqu'elle analyse et répond aux différentes causes des inégalités, lorsqu'elle adopte une approche intersectionnelle et structurelle, lorsqu'elle intègre la recherche dans des contextes locaux et lorsqu'elle confronte les détenteurs du pouvoir et les responsables des inégalités.

The right times. Reconfigurations of post Covid-19 social work

The spread of the new Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus marked the start of a long phase of health emergency and quickly led to the adoption of an articulated strategy to contain the contagion. Starting from March 2020, this had important effects on the main areas of individual and collective life also in our country. Priorities of intervention and unprecedented challenges have therefore been imposed on organizations and institutions first of all in the health sector but no less in the economic and social sphere. The aim of the article is to outline an updated profile of the rhythms and professional strategies of social work in Tuscany. Taking advantage of some key concepts and giving voice to the operators through some recent research results, the article analyzes the paths of reorganization of the times and working methods of those who work with the most fragile and vulnerable and question the adequacy of spaces for individual planning and sustainability, with a dedicated attention to the intertwining of individual time and social time.

Future time perspective and leisure activities during the COVID-19 pandemic period

This study examines the effect of future time perspective and risk attitude on leisure activities during the COVID-19 pandemic period, using the data from the 2020 Taiwan Social Change Survey. We show that people with high future time perspective tend to reduce the frequency of out-of-home leisure activities, whereas increase at-home online activities. The results indicate that, other than risk consideration, how people sense time plays a crucial role on the choices of leisure activities.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on enrollment in undergraduate health-related studies in Spain.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the pandemic has reinforced the choice of pursuing health-related bachelor's degrees, and to identify underlying factors that could contribute to that impact. This is a cross-sectional study using an online survey of 2,344 students of nursing, physiotherapy, medicine, psychology and podiatry who started health-related bachelor's degrees after the COVID-19 outbreak in Spanish higher education institutions. The pandemic influenced the choice of these studies by increasing the desire to help others (33.2%), by increasing citizenship values (28.4%), and by increasing the desire to contribute to improving the situation of the country (27.5%). Women had a significantly greater influence on the increase in social values related to the practice of the profession produced by the pandemic, whereas men and the bachelor's degree in podiatry were more influenced by salary prospects. An increased desire to help others was significantly higher among women and nursing and medical students. Podiatry and psychology were the degrees were most influenced by the pandemic, as more students decided to pursue them, something they had previously doubted, while in nursing, psychology, and medicine the pandemic reinforced their interest in pursuing the degree the most. Students personally affected by COVID-19 reported being more influenced in reconsidering their professional path and in reinforcing their desire to pursue the health-related studies.

How can gastronomy impact the social change of a vulnerable population assisted by social programs? The case of Brazilian social gastronomy

Social gastronomy is a topic studied in recent years, mainly due to the continuous emergence of organizations categorized within this concept during the economic crisis and pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. However, very little research has been done on the team associated with social gastronomy. And in Brazil, this movement has been growing in recent years, highlighting here in this work a social project in partnership with the university in a peripheral neighborhood of one of the largest metropolises in Brazil, Fortaleza. The Federal University of Ceará Social Gastronomy Program (Gastronomia Social UFC), an extension program of the Federal University of Ceará, promotes qualification courses for young people and adults, residents of the city of Fortaleza-CE, especially in the neighborhoods that make up the Grande Bom Jardim (Canindezinho, Bom Jardim, Siqueira, Granja Portugal, and Granja Lisboa), in communities whose population is prone to social risks, since this entire area has a high level of violence and a low HDI. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the social impacts of the courses offered by the Social Gastronomy Program in People's Garden in 2019. The research was qualitative, quantitative, exploratory, and descriptive, carried out between February and March of 2021 through an electronic form with a sample of 51 students participating in the courses. The results showed that the courses promoted favorable social impacts for the community and provided opportunities to improve the quality of life, skills, and techniques in gastronomy, fulfilling a role commonly expected by the extension of the Federal University of Ceará.

Digital Gender Gap in the Second Half of Life is Declining: Changes in Gendered Internet Use Between 2014 and 2021 in Germany.

OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of the study has been to examine changes in Internet use among men and women in three age groups (mid-life, early old age, and advanced old age) between 2014 and 2021. We tested two hypotheses: The complementary hypothesis posits that online activities reproduce gender differences in offline activities. The compensatory hypothesis posits that women are catching up over time in male-typed activities as Internet access approaches saturation for both genders. METHODS: We used representative, longitudinal data from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) collected in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2021 (n=21,505, age rage 46-90 years). We ran logistic regressions on Internet access and Internet use for four differently gender-typed activities: social contact (female-typed), shopping (gender neutral), entertainment (male-typed), and banking (male-typed). RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2021, women drew level with men in Internet access. Gender differences in all four forms of Internet use declined considerably between 2014 and 2021. Women overtook men in using the Internet for social contact. In older age groups, men held the lead regarding online banking. During the COVID-19 crisis, women caught up to men in Internet use, especially for entertainment. DISCUSSION: Overall time trends support the complementary hypothesis. By contrast, the finding that women have been catching up in in some male-typed online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, supports the compensatory hypothesis.

Museum unions and social change: reopening with solidarity

Over the past two years, an explosion of organised labour activity has emerged across the museum industry in the United States. As the museum world adjusts to the 'new normal' of pandemic life, it is essential that workers continue to join forces against the rampant precarity in the cultural sector, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the often-disastrous managerial responses to government shut-downs. Central to the healing of the sector after the trauma of pandemic-related layoffs and furloughs - and critical to the success of museums in the 21st century - is the shift in the self-identification of art museum workers away from the conceptualization of creative labour as removed from 'other' kinds of labour. This psycho-social transition on a mass scale opens the possibility of a movement of 'liberatory unionism' that can work to heal not just the museum sector, but harness worker power in support of intersectional social justice.

The mediating role of trait anxiety in the impact of digital competence perception on job insecurity: an application for hotel managers: MRN

PurposeThe main purpose of the study is to determine the mediating role of trait anxiety in the relationship between hotel managers' perceptions of digital competence in the Cappadocia Region and their perceptions of job insecurity.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, which is based on quantitative research, a cross-sectional design was used. The seven-item digital competence scale, four-item job insecurity scale and 20-item trait anxiety scale were used to measure the level of digital competence, job insecurity and trait anxiety of hotel managers. The convenience sampling method was used in the research, and 337 questionnaires were completed by senior and junior managers who agreed to participate in the research. To test the mediating role of trait anxiety, Andrew F. Hayes' views on the contemporary approach were taken as a basis.FindingsThe analysis results showed that digital competence had the opposite effect on job insecurity. Similarly, digital competence had the opposite effect on the level of trait anxiety. The level of trait anxiety affected the perception of job insecurity in a linear direction. As a result of the bootstrapping test, it was found that the indirect effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between digital competence and job insecurity was significant.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was unable to collect data from hotels that were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions. Therefore, one of the limitations of the study was that it did not reach the entire population. Another limitation of the study was that the questionnaires were addressed to hotel managers in the Cappadocia Region.Practical implicationsHotel managers' digital skills are considered to contribute to the tourism industry by organizing and determining business strategies, work processes and employee skills. In addition, when hiring hotel managers, it is essential to ensure that they have certain skills such as compatibility with the digital age, openness to innovation and the ability to adapt the employees working in their team to the age, which helps to improve the competitiveness of the hotel industry with the world and ensure the continuity of this situation.Originality/valueThe research addressed the variables of digital competence, job insecurity and trait anxiety and collected data from hotel managers in the Cappadocia Region using a survey technique. There were few studies that addressed these variables, and the mediating effect of trait anxiety was revealed based on the contemporary approach.

A/Moral Divide: Questions for an Asian American Studies Research Paradigm

Research for the community ultimately aims to effect social change. Transpacific studies offers an analysis about global power, war and colonial presence, and unequal exchanges between nations that explores the transnational ties of Asian Americans.11 For instance, Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis's work examines the intersection of American empire and the racialized/gendered representations of mixed-race Amerasians. The promise of transpacific studies and critical refugee studies is that they not only assess the traumas, needs, and conditions of Asian American communities, but they also examine the subjectivities, hopes, and futures of migrants and refugees as active, creative agents themselves.14 For example, transpacific scholar Wesley Ueunten writes about resistance to the construction of an American military base in Okinawa: Old people, as old and tiny as my Baban [grandmother] in my memories of her, have come to sit on the beach every day in quiet but unrelenting resistance to American Manifest Destiny and Japanese fatalistic dependency on that Destiny. In theory then, the genealogical and discursive analyses of transpacific studies and critical refugee studies would shed light on how we view social realities, and illuminate what's often missing in the analysis of these concepts.

Rural development from policy to politics. National strategic plans and their potential impact on social structural transformations. Comparative overview. Case study Romania between the European and national context

The question of rural development is of utmost for countries such as Romania. In the current climate of tension generated by the post-pandemic recovery and geopolitical turmoil, rural development has been more important than ever. We are living in a time of great structural duress and the solutions are becoming more political as the effects of the policy are political ones. There is a transformation of the policy into politics as the Common Agricultural Policy and the Rural Development policy by any other name would still be politics. In this context, the flexibilization provided by the National Strategic Plan is more than welcome. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the policy elements from CAP are turning into politics and are influencing the Member States politics. As the CAP post- 2020 unfolded new tools such as the National Strategic Plan were added to the EC toolbox, but often their design was influenced by national specificities. The paper performs a desk review analysis of the existing sources and has a case study the way in which this process unfolded in Romania. What is of importance in all that time-consuming process is the fact that for the first time we witnessed a large-scale reflection process throughout the European Union member states. It was partially favoured by the COVID-19 pandemic which put everything on hold for a couple of months. That combined with the need to reform made everything more democratic and more advanced and reformist than the initial proposals.

Dance and Activism: A Century of Radical Dance Across the World by Dana Mills (review)

According to Mills, there are very few books on "conceptual or theoretical studies of dance and activism” (3), but most importantly, any that do exist were written before the major events and upheavals of the current moment. Mills presents it as a practical problem that helps us to understand, among other things, why so many governments worldwide have shifted toward authoritarianism in recent decades. Because the author's main argument is that dance itself is an activist practice, Mills clarifies that the underlying problematic of the book is "how do people work to overcome dislocation from themselves, their societies, and their work by telling their life stories through dance?” (9). [...]the book could be used in full as a required reading for courses centered on dance as activism or dance for social change.

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.