The Performing Arts, the pandemic context, chaos, heterotopias and other knowledge

This article reflects on the experience of a research project that worked with the investigation and experiments of remote practices, from the perspective of acting and theatrical direction at UFSM, and which aimed to reduce damage resulting from the suspension of face-to-face activities in combating the pandemic. Covid-19. In order to think about and problematize this sui generis time and space and the results achieved, this article is based on the Foucauldian and Dubattian perspectives and also discusses epistemological issues.

Migrant Worker Dormitories: Virus in a Neoliberal Politics of Space

In neoliberal Singapore, capitalism thrives on the exploitation of low-waged migrant workers who are attracted to Singapore to earn a living building and cleaning the city and serving its residents. Their presence in this already crowded city provokes a dualistic public response that originates from a grudging acceptance of their indispensability: on the one hand, a refusal to allow them to fully integrate with Singapore society and be treated as equal human beings;and, on the other hand, a compassionate desire to help them when they are in need. The former tendency has had the effect of making migrant workers as invisible as possible, hence the profitable solution to house large numbers of them in dormitories located in the peripheral spaces of the island. Capitalism, profit maximization, and space optimization have created conditions and practices of exploitation that are, in normal times, cloaked in invisibility. The 2020 outbreak of COVID-19 in these dormitory spaces should not be surprising, unless they had been so well-hidden in the blind spots of public conscience and policy consciousness. The outbreaks also produced dualistic public reactions: moral panic and the stigmatization of infectious foreigners as dirty and dangerous folk devils, which demands further spatial segregation;and civic activism that steps up to the service of helping the vulnerable in their time of need. The solutions going forward will likely be technical rather than normative in nature, well within the segregating and exploitative logic of neoliberal globalization, with evermore-ingenious ways to extract value from migrant-worker labour, while making them and the heterotopia in which they exist as invisible and distant as possible. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Case report: Filamin A mutation lung disease recognized in an 11-year-old child.

The loss of function (LOF) due to mutations in the Filamin A (FLNA) gene may result in abnormality of the FLNA protein. Of the many clinical syndromes, this condition may produce chronic lung disease, which usually presents and is diagnosed in the infant/toddler age group. Its clinical pattern may mimic broncho-pulmonary dysplasia. It is part of the entities included in childhood interstitial lung disease group of disorders. We are herein reporting a patient that was diagnosed with FLNA-associated lung disease at 11 years of age. This case provides a unique insight into the long-term course of lung disease in this illness and broadens our understanding of the spectrum of its presentation. Although the patient had symptoms early in life, the diagnosis was not entertained because of the rarity of the disorder, its atypical and clinically mild presentation, and discontinuous care due to parents moving to different cities for employment reasons. Her presentation to our institution was for pneumonia. Due to highly unusual chest X-ray images, asthenia, and early clubbing, an extensive workup included further imaging and a lung biopsy. The final diagnosis was confirmed by the detection of FLNA LOF gene mutation.

Envisioning the futures of cultural tourism.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the future of tourism is a much-debated topic both in academic and non-academic circles with commentators expounding contrasting perspectives. This conceptual paper contributes to such debates and aims at envisioning plausible futures of cultural tourism, in particular. For that purpose, we first discuss cultural tourism trends and the future scenarios available in the literature. Then, we articulate three cultural tourism visions of the decades to come: a utopian, a dystopian and a heterotopian vision. Finally, we conclude that the heterotopian vision provides the most nuanced interpretation of the future of cultural tourism and we discuss the potential ramifications of such a vision.

Metaphysics of Company Towns: Space vs Time

The study examines the spatio-temporal model of "company town" and the peculiarity of Russian mono-settlements chronotope. In the context of the change of phases of the post-industrial era and transindustrialism, the features of the "continuum" as a space-time transition are considered. Taking into account the acceleration set by the coronavirus pandemic, the necessary change in the paradigm of attitude to company towns is correlated: from outdated - existing to progressive-realistic. The author emphasizes the importance of the evolution of productive forces, coupled with the city spatial development, while maintaining social organization, creating opportunities for economic independence, encouraging private initiative, real protection of rights and property, and the consistent development of real self-government.

#OurPlace2020: Blurring Boundaries of Learning Spaces

The move to online learning has blurred the distinction between the Foucauldian conceptualisation of university as a ‘Heterotopia’ with the real world of contingent alternative learning spaces students create. In this paper, we highlight the need for a broader and more holistic approach to educational design which requires a re-conceptualisation of the learning environment to include the students’ real-world spaces and their socio-cultural surroundings through a postdigital paradigm. We seek to understand how Covid-19 has accelerated postdigital disruption of the concept of university as heterotopia, where learning is traditionally highly structured and segmented in slices of time for seminars, lectures, and workshops. In April 2020, the University of Sydney Business School invited students to share stories of their remote learning experience using the #OurPlace2020 hashtag. Using Actor Network Theory (ANT), we analyse 37 digital stories to provide examples of how the boundaries of the traditional learning spaces of university campus are blurred with real-life learning spaces when students are studying remotely. We argue for the need to adopt a broader analytical approach that can elucidate the complexity of heterogenous networks of interacting digital and non-digital entities through which learning spaces are constructed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Corona hotels in Israel: Care and abandonment under the auspices of digital medicine.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel established a number of 'corona hotels' - hybrid spaces that were neither fully treatment-oriented nor fully incarcerational, in which people known or suspected to be infected with the coronavirus were confined, sometimes for prolonged and indefinite periods. This paper describes the experience of 25 people who were confined in corona recovery and isolation hotels between March and July 2020. The corona hotels exemplify how remote medical technology and digital medicine together enable a new 'technogeography of care', where care and abandonment are inextricably linked. The paper adds to the growing number of critical studies on digital health by showing how the employed technologies impact the concepts of human embodiment, subjectivity and social relations, as well as how the occupants negotiated the meaning of these technologies and resisted their effects.

Solidarity in the Time of COVID-19?

This article critically examines how solidarity has been enacted in the first 2 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly, but not exclusively, from a United Kingdom perspective.1 Solidaristic strategies are framed in two ways: aspirations to overcome COVID-19 (utopian anthropocentric solidarity); and those that are illusory, incompatible, contradictory, and disrupting of solidaristic ideals (heterotopian solidarity). Solidarity can also be understood more widely from a biocentric perspective (solidarity with all life). In the context of COVID-19 a lack of biocentric solidarity points to a probable cause of the pandemic; where COVID-19, harmless in bats, jumped species as a consequence of closer contact with humans. Solidarity, therefore, is not only expressed in a fight against a viral "enemy" but is also a reminder of human activity that has upset balances within ecosystems.