Cross-Border Circulation of Slovak Care Workers in Austria during the Pandemic against the Background of the Care Crisis

The paper focuses on the cross-border care circulation of Slovak care workers who work in Austria, with the care crisis and the pandemic in the background. Slovak care workers often work in short-term two-week work rotas, allowing them to balance work and private life. They remain primarily responsible for the social reproduction and care of their households. The pandemic and imposed measures have fundamentally affected this transnational circulation of care. Caregivers faced the challenge of mobilizing capacities and resources to cope with emerging situations, developing new strategies, and modifying existing ones. Based on interviews with care workers, employment agencies, and a non-governmental organization focusing on the rights of care workers, the study presents how care workers coped with the measures introduced during the pandemic period, describes selected strategies of care workers to ensure social reproduction in their families despite the pandemic, and also discuss selected changes in the individual life trajectories of women, to which the pandemic period contributed. The paper argues that although women contributed to addressing the emerging care deficit reinforced by the pandemic crisis, they had to rely on their capacities for the care needs of their families. © 2023 The Author(s).

Effects of COVID-19 on School Nurse Mental Health Intervention Practices.

Mental health issues have been exacerbated by COVID-19; therefore we examined how the school nurses' role in addressing mental health changed during the pandemic. We administered a nationwide survey in 2021, guided by the Framework for the 21st Century School Nurse, and analyzed self-reported changes in mental health interventions by school nurses. Most mental health practice changes after the start of the pandemic occurred in the care coordination (52.8%) and community/public health (45.8%) principles. An overall decrease in students visiting the school nurse's office (39.4%) was seen, yet the frequency of students visiting with mental health concerns had increased (49.7%). Open-ended responses indicated that school nurse roles changed due to COVID-19 protocols, including decreased access to students and changes in mental health resources. These insights into the role of school nurses in addressing student mental health during public health disasters have important implications for future disaster preparedness efforts.

Comparing media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry: pre- and post-pandemic lockdown

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry before and after the COVID-19 lockdown to determine whether the coverage changed in light of a global health-care crisis and the fast-track development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.Design/methodology/approachThe top five US newspapers were audited, comparing the 12-month periods before and after March 2020 coinciding with the pandemic lockdown, yielding 493 front-page articles and editorials. Each headline and full-text article was separately analyzed and categorized as either positive, negative or neutral toward the pharmaceutical industry. A frequency analysis of the hot button issues covered in each article was conducted.FindingsYear 1 and Year 2 audit results were compared to identify changes in media coverage pre- and post-lockdown. The amount of coverage of the industry increased 145% and the tone of both headlines and articles shifted dramatically. Only one of the five newspapers had a net positive article rating of the industry pre-lockdown, four of five were net positive post-lockdown. The proportion of positive headlines increased 165%. The top issues discussed in the coverage shifted from persistent challenges for the industry (e.g. opioid crisis, high cost of drugs) to the emergence of the virus and status of vaccine development.Originality/valueThis research establishes how media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry changed as the industry responded to a global health-care crisis and identifies implications for industry stakeholders.

Mobile health and the social organization of care in the global south: Beyond technological fixes

The notion of a global "care crisis" has recently loomed large in public consciousness, drawing attention to the longstanding problem of how our care infrastructures are increasingly overburdened and unsupported. The chronic under-investment in paid and unpaid healthcare work has been made especially clear in light of the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis, transnational agencies, national governments, hospitals, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to leverage increasing smartphone and mobile internet use globally to create "technological fixes" that restructure work, time, and space with the aim of meeting care needs with limited resources-this in contrast to investments that could increase resources but ultimately compromise on capitalistic aims of profit and efficiency. In this dissertation, I examine multiple types of fixes that have gotten significant traction in global health, including digital payments, personal chat apps, and semi-automated chatbots, focusing on contexts within India and Kenya. I describe care workers' and health organizations' experiences with these technologies and how they integrate with larger health infrastructures. Drawing on feminist social reproduction theory, I tease out ways that these technologies meet real and urgent care needs, while also belying the mere redistribution, short-term valuation, and narrowing of care work that takes place by and through technological fixes (often most affecting those with the least power in a given context). Taking this dilemma seriously, I argue for the responsibility of researchers and practitioners to combat dominant narratives of technological fixes for the care crisis, even as we seek to support care work through design. Thus, this work considers how we might center futures of care work in which societies make concrete investments in care workers and care infrastructures, not for efficiency's sake but for the needs and aspirations of care workers and the sustainability of our care infrastructures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Comparing media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry: pre-and post-pandemic lockdown

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry before and after the COVID-19 lockdown to determine whether the coverage changed in light of a global health-care crisis and the fast-track development of vaccines and antiviral treatments. Design/methodology/approachThe top five US newspapers were audited, comparing the 12-month periods before and after March 2020 coinciding with the pandemic lockdown, yielding 493 front-page articles and editorials. Each headline and full-text article was separately analyzed and categorized as either positive, negative or neutral toward the pharmaceutical industry. A frequency analysis of the hot button issues covered in each article was conducted. FindingsYear 1 and Year 2 audit results were compared to identify changes in media coverage pre- and post-lockdown. The amount of coverage of the industry increased 145% and the tone of both headlines and articles shifted dramatically. Only one of the five newspapers had a net positive article rating of the industry pre-lockdown, four of five were net positive post-lockdown. The proportion of positive headlines increased 165%. The top issues discussed in the coverage shifted from persistent challenges for the industry (e.g. opioid crisis, high cost of drugs) to the emergence of the virus and status of vaccine development. Originality/valueThis research establishes how media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry changed as the industry responded to a global health-care crisis and identifies implications for industry stakeholders.

Domestic work in times of coronavirus: the precariousness of migrant domestic workers in Spain

The precariousness that characterizes domestic employment in Spain is not new;however, the health emergency caused by covid-19 has exacerbated it. The migratory situation of a large number of female employees, as well as the informality that prevails in this labor niche, have been identified as elements of greater vulnerability for this group in the context of the pandemic. In this text, we analyze the impact of covid-19 on domestic employment and care in the Spanish context, specifically we recover the experience of domestic workers in the city of Zaragoza (Spain), highlighting their labor, social and health difficulties, as well as the strategies used to face the consequences of the pandemic. © 2022, Scalabriniano Center for Migratory Studies. All rights reserved.

COVID-19–a crisis of care and what we can learn from the SEWA experience in India

As women across the globe continue to be overburdened with child-care responsibilities owing to the closure of institutional child-care facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper attempts to posit a viable disaster-resilient model through the idea of community-based care infrastructure. Based on research conducted among parents from low-income groups, whose children attended child-care centres run by Sangini Co-operative of Self-employed women's association (SEWA) in Gujarat in western India, this paper wants to highlight the spontaneity with which the Cooperative responded to the pandemic, underlining the efficacy of community-based interventions in times of crisis. This paper argues that solidarity between care workers and the larger community is only likely to increase during times of crisis, which makes community-based solutions an integral part of addressing future care emergencies. © 2022 Oxfam KEDV.

Care and crisis in David Graeber's New York: Anarcha-feminism, gift economies, and mutual aid beyond a global pandemic

The scholarship and life experiences of David Graeber provide a context to investigate the notion of care during crises. The COVID-19 global pandemic serves as a critical flashpoint to explore concepts such as gift economies and mutual aid, as noted throughout his work. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of Peter Kropotkin and Marcel Mauss, this article highlights a discussion of ???gifting??? put forth by Mauss and (re)investigates Kropotkin???s work as taken up by Graeber. Through a trajectory of historiography and autoethnography, I examine the significance of anarcha-feminism embodied by and through that of Emma Goldman as significant to anarchist practices that reverberate in Graeber???s life and work. I, therefore, introduce a theoretical concept of phantom power to describe this phenomenon. Further, I situate anarcha-feminism within collectives of care and relate this work to anarchist interventions such as Occupy. I argue that Graeber???s anarchist framework for Occupy provided the foundation for contemporary mutual aid groups in New York that were active not only during the pandemic but, importantly, to ongoing mutual aid and direct action projects. Finally, I acknowledge this article to be an engagement with the phenomenology of David Graeber, who remains influential in my research, teaching, and activism.

Clean up time! Redesigning care after COVID-19: a position paper on the care crisis from Austria, Germany and Switzerland

We are a group of social scientists from Austria, Germany and Switzerland who drew attention to the care crisis in a cross-national 'Care manifesto' as early as 2013. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become impossible to overlook the crisis of care and we believe this provides an opportunity to correct serious shortcomings in the care sector. That is why we are putting forward a new position paper - 'Clean up time! Redesigning care after COVID-19' - aiming at identifying problems in the wake of the pandemic and suggesting goals, as well as the next work packages. We ask you to consider the demands in the position paper, disseminate it and discuss it in your networks and communities. Both the English and German versions are available on our website (see: https://care-macht-mehr.com/).

The Care for Life in Common in Times of Pandemic and Post-Pandemic

In this essay, I reflect on the way that the COVID-19 pandemic deepens the care crisis and the radical, democratic transformation this turning point demands. Beginning with an assessment of the status of the free-riding on care (Nancy Fraser) and the gender division of labor, I continue with an analysis of the hegemonic justifications that, as Wendy Brown has shown, underpin such unbalance. I conclude with some remarks on the imminent challenge to advance towards a model of state, society and citizenship capable of securing a sustained and co-responsible social compromise with the care of the community. © 2021 University of Valparaiso. All rights reserved.

Robots in Healthcare? What Patients Say.

In this paper, we analyse patients' perspectives on the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic systems in healthcare. Based on citizens' experiences when hospitalised for COVID-19, we explore how the opinions and concerns regarding healthcare automation could not be disassociated from a context of high pressure on the health system and lack of resources, and a political discourse on AI and robotics; a situation intensified by the pandemic. Thus, through the analysis of a set of interviews, a series of issues are identified that revolve around the following: the empirical effects of imagined robots, the vivid experience of citizens with the care crisis, the discomfort of the ineffective, the virtualised care assemblages, the human-based face-to-face relationships, and the automatisation of healthcare tasks. In light of these results, we show the variability in patients' perspectives on AI and robotic systems and explain it by distinguishing two interpretive repertoires that account for different views and opinions: a well-being repertoire and a responsibility repertoire. Both interpretative repertoires are relevant in order to grasp the complexity of citizens' approaches to automatisation of healthcare. Attending to both allows us to move beyond the dominant (political) discourse of technology markets as the only way to respond to healthcare challenges. Thus, we can analyse and integrate patients' perspectives to develop AI and robotic systems in healthcare to serve citizens' needs and collective well-being.