Teaching under lockdown: the change in the social practice of teaching.

Due to the unprecedented situation caused by a global pandemic, the traditional way of teaching that is reliant on face-to-face interaction between teachers and students has been dismantled. This article looks into university teachers' experiences of teaching under lockdown, with an intention to understand what the change meant in terms of social practice. The research follows a qualitative design, in which ten university teachers were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Three themes interwoven with a common thread were identified through teachers' reflections, including displacement, routine, and role. The common thread was identified as the interaction between teachers and students, and analysing the quality of this interaction led to understanding the social kernel of teaching as embedded in social practice, suggesting that physical dislocation demands teachers to recreate meaning in the new situation. This change has been seen as difficult, yet unpacking teachers' perceptions provided valuable lessons for the future.

Researching wild meat consumption in contemporary Nanxiong, South China: a social practice approach

The outbreak of COVID-19 reminds us of the urgency of reducing wild meat consumption (WMC). It is important to investigate why some people prefer wild meat. Using in-depth interviews (n = 19), group interviews (n = 9), and participant observation, this study conducted fieldwork in Nanxiong in South China in 2015–2016 and 2020, where WMC is considered a historical and cultural tradition. This study updates understandings of people's need for WMC in recent years and is likely the first attempt to apply social practice theory to investigate WMC, which provides an integrated and promising tool for theoretically summarizing the "motivations” in everyday life and dynamic relations behind this collective and conventional consumption. This paper offers new understandings of wild meat consumption through an exploration of how the related practices of preparing, cooking and tasting are changing. It explores materiality of taste and texture and the agentic capacity of wild meat. Additionally, the concept of practice memory is used to examine the development of WMC practice. In the context of COVID-19, some policy implications against WMC are provided. © 2023 Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS).

Innovative strategies to tackle post-Covid-19 tourism: case of small tourism companies

PurposeThe Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the tourism industry. The highly contagious coronavirus-19 has brought the whole industry to its knees, initiating catastrophic effects in terms of loss of jobs and revenue. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the innovative coping strategies adopted by small tourism companies (STCs) to revive business and cope with the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study used qualitative exploration and asked open-ended questions to senior executives of STCs in India. Written responses were obtained from the respondents. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse the responses of the participants.FindingsThe findings highlight the innovative strategies adopted by STCs to cope with Covid-19-related business loss and present suggestions given by them to benefit the tourism industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers insightful practical and theoretical implications for tourism companies, marketing practitioners and policymakers.Originality/valueThe study builds on social practice theory, and the findings (prominent themes) are uniquely mapped with the elements of social practice theory.

Remixing literacy: Young children producing literacy practices for research participation

This paper discusses a group of young children's literacy practices as they collected data for an ethnographically principled, participatory research project. Institutions of schooling can ‘fix' powerful conceptualisations of literacy within pre-defined boundaries. Educational research into young children's in-school literacy can focus on their socialisation into these ‘fixed' literacies rather than children's capacity to develop new practices. During the early stage of this project, the researcher was unable to visit the children's London school due to COVID restrictions. Part of the children's response to this problem was to create photographic texts to show the researcher their classroom. Creating these texts demonstrated the children's capacity to negotiate the ‘fixities' of adult-assigned tasks in the ‘flow' of their developing in-class literacy practices. I explore these practices from a Literacy as a Social Practice perspective, supported by Corsaro's theory of Interpretive Reproduction and Dyson's concept of ‘remixing.' I argue that the application of concepts that allow for a wider understanding of the ways in which children manage fixities and flows in their in-school literacy practices can help educational practitioners plan literacy curricula that supports children's work to meet institutional requirements within their active engagement with literacies. © 2023 The Author

Social practices and energy use at home during the first Italian lockdown due to Covid-19.

During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, cities became large residential consumers of energy. In general, energy demand has decreased, but the users who used the most energy during the pandemic were the people in their homes creating a change compared to the past. How have household habits changed affecting energy use during the lockdown? Has energy demand changed equally in all homes? What factors help explain the change in daily household habits and the change in energy use? Via distribution of a questionnaire completed by 3519 people living in Italy during the first lockdown #StayAtHome, the change in daily habits and consequent energy use were investigated. It collected data on socio-demographic and household characteristics and the material context in which people live. The results were interpreted according to the social practice approach that has been used in the past to analyse energy habits and use of households, for example, for cooking. The results can support the interpretation of energy demand studies in the pandemic period and address decisions and policymaking for sustainable energy transition.

Remixing literacy: Young children producing literacy practices for research participation

This paper discusses a group of young children's literacy practices as they collected data for an ethnographically principled, participatory research project. Institutions of schooling can ‘fix' powerful conceptualisations of literacy within pre-defined boundaries. Educational research into young children's in-school literacy can focus on their socialisation into these ‘fixed' literacies rather than children's capacity to develop new practices. During the early stage of this project, the researcher was unable to visit the children's London school due to COVID restrictions. Part of the children's response to this problem was to create photographic texts to show the researcher their classroom. Creating these texts demonstrated the children's capacity to negotiate the ‘fixities' of adult-assigned tasks in the ‘flow' of their developing in-class literacy practices. I explore these practices from a Literacy as a Social Practice perspective, supported by Corsaro's theory of Interpretive Reproduction and Dyson's concept of ‘remixing.' I argue that the application of concepts that allow for a wider understanding of the ways in which children manage fixities and flows in their in-school literacy practices can help educational practitioners plan literacy curricula that supports children's work to meet institutional requirements within their active engagement with literacies.

Community response to COVID-19: The case of rental housing cooperatives in Melbourne, Australia and Choluteca, Honduras.

COVID-19 and its restrictions have had widely documented negative impacts for private and social rental sectors, internationally. Limited evidence exists about how the pandemic effects were experienced in alternative forms of renting such as housing cooperatives. Rental cooperatives, recognised for their principles of democratic control, education and training and concern for community, may offer different outcomes for members than more individually-oriented rental forms. This paper seeks to explore whether and how COVID-19 was responded to within cooperative rental housing models, and if the pandemic posed a challenge to cooperative principles. Using a social practices approach, the analysis first identifies cooperative members' formal and informal responses to COVID-19, and second explores the meaning of such activities in the pandemic context in Australia and Honduras cooperatives. The continuity of usual housing cooperative practices and pandemic measures were analysed via in-depth interviews with 15 residents. Findings indicate that cooperative responses acted to reduce negative impacts of the pandemic or to find effective solutions. Rental housing cooperative residents' lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, invite us to reflect on the role of housing cooperatives in the housing sector, the importance of collaborative housing models and the relevance of housing-based community resilience.

Virtual play programming in therapeutic settings during a global pandemic-Implications for practice

This article discusses the steep learning curve in planning and facilitating opportunities for virtual play during the COVID-19 Pandemic within the medical setting, and describes how many rich learning opportunities were produced and were ultimately transformative in the perceptions of the possibilities for play. During the spring of 2020, fifty students enrolled in the Child Life Specialist (CLS) minor program at Bloomsburg University (BU) were preparing to participate in a 120-hour experiential learning course that allowed for the application of evidence-based child life theory to practice. By mid-March of 2020 COVID-19 had spread throughout the country causing a nationwide lockdown. Soon thereafter, Camp Victory canceled its 2020 camps, and BU followed suit canceling international travel and therefore our trip to GOSH. Based upon these world events, our inclination was to cancel the summer 2020 child life practicum. But after a brainstorming session involving BU tutors, the leadership team at Camp Victory, and the Head of Play Services at GOSH, we decided to offer the child life practicum virtually. Transitioning from a face-to-face to a virtual practicum experience was simplified due in part to the Bloomsburg Online Learning and Teaching (BOLT) Management System which provided access to Zoom, discussion boards, and various assessment tools. These features allowed us to run the practicum as an asynchronous/synchronous online class. The major challenge of offering the practicum virtually was providing BU students contact hours with the campers, patients, and families across the Camp Victory and GOSH settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Public Libraries as Supportive Environments for Children's Development of Critical Health Literacy.

Critical health literacy enables individuals to use cognitive and social resources for informed action on the wider determinants of health. Promoting critical health literacy early in the life-course may contribute to improved health outcomes in the long term, but children's opportunities to develop critical health literacy are limited and tend to be school-based. This study applies a settings-based approach to analyse the potential of public libraries in England to be supportive environments for children's development of critical health literacy. The study adopted institutional ethnography as a framework to explore the public library as an everyday setting for children. A children's advisory group informed the study design. Thirteen children and 19 public library staff and community stakeholders were interviewed. The study results indicated that the public library was not seen by children, staff, or community stakeholders as a setting for health. Its policies and structure purport to develop health literacy, but the political nature of critical health literacy was seen as outside its remit. A supersetting approach in which children's everyday settings work together is proposed and a conceptual model of the public library role is presented.

A life without a plan? Freelance musicians in pandemic limbo.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already precarious conditions of freelance workers. The aim of this study is to understand what it means for freelance musicians to be in pandemic limbo. Thirteen Swedish professional freelance musicians in the classical genre were interviewed about their experiences in the midst of the pandemic. A theoretical frame of reference is offered with concepts from Bourdieu, sociology of emotions and emotional geographies. This enables an understanding of what it means as a freelancer to be dislocated and disrupted in relation to places and spaces of work and investments in time and emotions. The conclusions are about the ambivalent emotions and processes of emotional management that are caused by the pandemic. For freelance musicians, depending on their access to the live-settings of gigs, auditions and social venues, it is like being thrown back in time and place (back to where careers were slowly built). However, while at a distance from the normal run of careers, constructive processes of critical reflection and re-orientation have been initiated.

Reflections on pre-service English Language teacher’s experiences and practices during the COVID 19 pandemic teaching practice: Highlights and challenges from the lessons taught

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges and highlights of teaching practice during the COVID 19 pandemic. Teaching practice is an indispensable part of the training of pre-service teachers. In light of this, teaching practice assumes particular immediacy and primacy given the opportunity it can afford for theory to blend in with practice. In a normal situation, student teachers are usually confronted by inexperience but to make matter worse, COVID 19 came with more challenges. In most circumstances, teachers were expected to use technology in their teaching to lessen direct contact and to reach a wider number of students. The data for this qualitative study was collected through an engagement with some English language student teachers who were asked to voluntarily write reflections on the highlights and challenges during their lessons within the teaching practice exercise. The findings portrayed that student came up with innovative ways of handling classes by themselves since it was not feasible for their lecturers to supervise them and give them the much-needed feedback that could improve their teaching. Secondly, the article upholds a view of language teaching as a social practice which we believe is well placed to reduce anxiety and build self-esteem. The study concludes that since learning during the COVID 19 appears to be more individualistic, it is important to promote student teachers’ voice and agency in learner’s learning to be able to build self-learning skills and learner’s identity. © 2022, Editorial Board English Scholarship Beyond Borders. All rights reserved.

Practic-ing culture: exploring the implications of pre-existing mobility cultures on (post-) pandemic practices in Norway, Ireland, and the United States

Issues of culture have to date been underexplored in practice-theoretical approaches to consumption. As a disruptive force affecting citizen mobility all over the world, the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique empirical context to explore how culture and practice intersect, specifically concerning how unsettling events affect practices across different cultural and governing settings. Applying a combined mobility-culture and practice-theoretical framework, we conceptualize mobility cultures as setting-specific arrangements of practices that shape and reflect distinct, temporally unfolding, socio-material contexts. Comparing three cities with different mobility cultures in Norway, Ireland, and the United States, we combine 63 qualitative interviews with a contextual analysis of mobility settings to explore how daily urban mobilities have been transformed. We find that existing variation in mobility cultures, including bundles of place-specific mobility-related norms and infrastructures, mediate the impact of disruption, shaping how changes in modes, meanings, and performances of mobilities transpire. Notably, the analysis reveals how underlying cultures of mobility shape how practice trajectories respond and are reconfigured in a pandemic health-risk society. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for understanding how culture and practice intersect and calls for further comparative culture-focused analysis in social science research on consumption. We consider how cross-cultural analysis can inform science and policy efforts focused on transitions toward low-carbon mobilities. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University & Research.

"We don't vaccinate foreigners": Promoting critical literacy through understanding disputed meanings in official documents

In this article, I note an observable social turn in languages arts curricula in Latin America. However, I argue that the effort to contextualize written language and bring everyday uses of writing into the classroom falls short of promoting a critical understanding of some key aspects of how literacies work. To do this, I analyze a recent incident relating to the validity of some official documents used to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico City. Using a New Literacy Studies framework, I argue that official documents operate in local and practical contexts where local employees have a fundamental role in their validation. I show how the legitimacy of documents is continuously ratified or challenged in the contexts of use. Their validity is subject to interpretation, power dynamics, and social and cultural context grounded in local practices. I conclude that this has important implications for teaching and learning about literacy in school. © 2022, Institute for Education Policy Studies. All rights reserved.

“Where is your fixed point?” Dealing with ambiguous freelance musician careers

The pandemic Covid-19 has highlighted the precarious working conditions that freelance performers and artists have always worked under. The aim of this article is to understand and explain freelance musicians’ strategies and emotional labour for dealing with their ambiguous positions and careers. The article develops a theoretical approach, combining concepts of precarity and emotional labour with Bourdieu’s theory of social practices. Interviews with 13 professional Swedish freelance musicians in the art music/classical genre were conducted in the winter of 2021. What is at stake in the gigs the freelancers have, are issues of social belonging and symbolic recognition. Aspirations for working life are negotiated in obvious and subtle ways, practically and emotionally. The freelancers strive to create a fixed point in a job on uncertain grounds. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Cultural Trends 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.)

The Social Practices of Food Bank Volunteer Work

The on-going rise in demand experienced by voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) providing emergency food aid has been described as a sign of a social and public health crisis in the UK (Loopstra, 2018;Lambie-Mumford, 2019), compounded since 2020 by the impact of (and responses to) Covid 19 (Power et al., 2020). In this article we adopted a social practice approach to understanding the work of food bank volunteering. We identify how 'helping others', 'deploying coping strategies' and 'creating atmospheres' are key specific (and connected) forms of shared social practice. Further, these practices are sometimes suffused by faith-based practice. The analysis offers insights into how such spaces of care and encounter (Williams et al., 2016;Cloke et al., 2017) function, considers the implications for these distinctive organisational forms (the growth of which has been subject to justified critique) and suggests avenues for future research.

Snail Meat Consumption in Buea, Cameroon: The Methodological Challenges in Exploring Its Public Health Risks

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in studying health risks that could arise from consuming terrestrial snails infested with pathogenic microorganisms. In Cameroon, snails remain an inexpensive protein source and are collected from free-living environments termed “farms.” Our focus has been on understanding health risks due to the handling and consumption of snails collected from locations that include decaying vegetation and untreated human and household wastes. To complement preliminary field observations and get more in-depth understanding of the existing situation, we adopted a qualitative approach using lived experiences, participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a focus group. We made use of informal settings where snail vendors and consumers narrated their routines and experiences from snail harvesting to consumption and the strategies they use to keep their families safe from foodborne illnesses. The study adopted two frameworks: Soft Systems Methodology to explore and model the “messy” nature of the social system and Social Practice Theory to explore the local practices identified through systemic model. The challenges discussed are set in the context of conducting social research in a developing world situation in a time of social and political tension and a global pandemic (COVID-19). With this in mind, the methodological decisions discussed include the type of enquiry and selection of frameworks, selection of field sites, recruitment and engagement with participants, design of interview instruments, interpretation, and trustworthiness of the study findings. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of using our approach. © The Author(s) 2022.

Between the sea and the sky: A social practice investigation into health behaviours during cruise travel.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted organised cruise holidays as perfect incubators for microbiological infections due to the constant socialising within closed spaces. Little is known about people's health behaviours and perceptions during cruise holidays. METHODS: Narrative group interviews and respondent photo diary exercises were conducted with families (n = 25) residing in different areas across metropolitan NSW, Australia. Guided by a social practice theoretical approach we undertook a thematic analysis that identifies reasons for choosing a cruise, health considerations and behaviours in relation to cruise travel and awareness of official cruise health information. RESULTS: Cruise travel included a licence to abandon cautious behaviours, reinforced by confidence in the cruise organiser's risk management ability. Health concerns were not a high priority for participants and were mainly understood in terms of eating healthy, modest exercise, managing seasickness and having adequate supplies of medications. Awareness of official cruise health and risk information was largely non-existent. CONCLUSION: Understanding how travel health practices emerge and are likely to be modifiable produces health-promoting awareness and intervention efforts that recognise and link with people's ideas about cruise holidays as times of fun, leisure, relaxation, without interfering with or imposing on them. SO WHAT?: This study highlights the importance of developing health communication and promotion strategies that are responsive to the interconnected meanings, competencies and materials that have a bearing on how cruise travellers understand and enact health-related behaviours in preparation for and during a cruise holiday.

Assessment of the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Lifestyle of the Population in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey Study.

Background The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created an unprecedented problem in people's lives around the world. Lockdown measures altered the routine lifestyle aspects of people including diet, exercise, sleep, stress, smoking, job status, recreation, and application of modern technologies. Understanding the lifestyle profile of individuals could help in designing effective interventions to minimize the risk factors of COVID-19-related health problems. Objectives The aim of this research is to investigate the lifestyle changes among adults living in Saudi Arabia (SA) during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Methods A cross-sectional survey study was done to investigate the lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia from August to September 2020. A pre-designed questionnaire was used for data collection and distributed online through social media. The questionnaire included items about sleep patterns, dietary habits, physical activity, employment status, recreation activities, use of social media, and screen time before and during the pandemic. Results A total of 338 adults with a median age of 40 years participated in the study. During the pandemic, employment, smoking decreased significantly (53.3 vs. 55.6%, p<0.001 & 15.7% vs. 18.3%, p=0.049) with significant increases in daily intake of fruits or vegetables (47% to 60.2%, p<0.001), caffeinated beverages (seven or more times caffeine, 3% vs. 0.9%, p<0.001), and water (more than eight water cups daily, 18.4 vs. 11.9, p<0.001). Overweight group increased significantly from 28.5% to 32% (p=0.009). Sleeping more than nine hours increased significantly from 8.3% to 21.8% (p<0.001) with increasing sleeping aids from 11.6% to 15.7% (p<0.001). Both the screen and the social media times increased significantly for six or more hours daily (14.8% vs. 35.3% and 9.5% vs. 28.2% respectively, p=<0.001 for both). There were significant decreases in socialization (91.4% vs. 37.8%) and fast food (71.98% vs. 47.04%), and increases in physically inactivity (19% vs. 5.3%) and stress (90.8% vs. 85.2%) (p<0.001 for all). Most participants perceived stress during the pandemic (307, 90.8%). Conclusion There were remarkable behavioral changes in all aspects of the lifestyle of the participants living in SA during the COVID-19 pandemic with some positive effects on smoking and dietary habits. However, negative changes included unemployment, physical inactivity, sleep disturbances, social isolation, and excessive weight gain. There is a need to study the possible consequences of such changes on the future population health in SA.

A qualitative study of the challenges in rearranging community pharmacy service provision during the COVID-19 public health emergency: The prism of social practice theory.

OBJECTIVES: While healthcare systems struggle to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacies have changed the way in which they serve society by ensuring the availability of primary-level medical care. This study aims to examine the rearrangement of service provision at community pharmacies through the prism of social practice theory. STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. METHODS: In total, 21 community pharmacists, 3 hospital pharmacists and 10 experts in Estonia were interviewed. For data analysis, two-dimensional thematic textual analysis was performed according to four types of practices proposed in social practice theory and based on temporal distinction. RESULTS: The findings of this study reveal that, in order to maintain and improve community pharmacy service provision during the pandemic, there have been changes to all aspects of practice elements, including practical understandings, rules and teleological structures. The majority of challenges were experienced because of necessary changes to the habitual ways of providing pharmacy services, indicating resistance to these changes and reinforcing the need to continue existing 'practice-bundles'. Limited access to healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in community pharmacists becoming the primary (and only) accessible healthcare contact; thus, leading to a shift in awareness about the role of pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: Although large-scale changes may result in the dissolvement of practice-bundles and require readiness to adjust current methods of service provision, dissolution is a gradual process. There is an urgent need to support pharmacists in managing the challenges of rearranging service provision, such as immediate organisational changes, lack of information and changing resources.

Exploring the effects of California's COVID-19 shelter-in-place order on household energy practices and intention to adopt smart home technologies.

To contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), local and state governments in the U.S. have imposed restrictions on daily life, resulting in dramatic changes to how and where people interact, travel, socialize, and work. Using a social practice perspective, we explore how California's Shelter-in-Place (SIP) order impacted household energy activities. To do so, we conducted an online survey of California residents (n = 804) during active SIP restrictions (May 5-18, 2020). We asked respondents about changes to home occupancy patterns and household energy activities (e.g., cooking, electronics usage) due to SIP restrictions, as well as perspectives toward smart energy technologies. Households reported increased midday (10am-3pm) occupancy during SIP, and this increase is related to respondent and household characteristics, such as education and the presence of minors in the home. Examining change in the frequency of household activities during SIP, presence of minors and increased midday occupancy proved important. Finally, we considered relationships to intention to purchase smart home technologies, with the presence of minors and increased activity frequency relating to greater intention to purchase. These findings demonstrate how household activities and occupancy changed under COVID restrictions, how these changes may be related to energy use in the home, and how such COVID-related changes could be shaping perspectives toward smart home technology, potentially providing insight into future impacts on household practices and electricity demand.