The COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Ties, and Psychosocial Well-Being of Middle-Aged Women in Rural Africa.

The study contributes to the understanding of the societal impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in the Global South by examining longer term implications of pandemic-induced disruptions and deprivations for social ties and psychosocial well-being. Using data from a survey of middle-aged women in rural Mozambique, the author finds a negative association between the pandemic-triggered household economic decline and perceived changes in the quality of relations with marital partners, non-coresident children, and relatives, but not with generally more distant actors, such as coreligionists and neighbors. In turn, multivariable analyses detect a positive association of changes in the quality of family and kin ties with participants' life satisfaction, regardless of other factors. Yet women's expectations for changes in their household living conditions in the near future show a significant association only with changes in the quality of relations with marital partners. The author situates these findings within the context of women's enduring vulnerabilities in low-income patriarchal settings.

Redefinition of Social Ties During the COVID-19 pandemic: Narratives of People who Relate with Each Other in Gated Communities

This article describes the research process that revolves around the resignation of social ties in the narratives of two residential complexes: Arboleda I and Casablanca stage II of the city of Bogota D.C, during the COVID-19. To this end, the current situation is recognized by pointing out the basic conceptions oriented to the COVID-19, from the elements of its emergence, its expansion, the measures taken by the Colombian government, as well as the attitude of civil society in residential complexes. The article covers the understanding of the subjectivities of actors who with their voices relate their experiences around social ties, highlighting the uniqueness of the community, organizational aspects, and technological means, among others. The methodology used is qualitative, in the line of narrative research;Subsequently, a relational analysis leads to results that show the different modifications that the inhabitants have experienced in the way of linking at the branch level, selective, organic and citizen participation in times of health emergency.

Participatory Actions in Virtual Spaces. The Role of Images in the Construction of Shared Spaces

Participatory actions in public spaces are practices of encounter with the potential to reinforce social ties and foster a renewed sense of belonging to places. They are well-established and widely practiced – both at the national level [1] and internationally [2, 3] – as modes of exploration [4] and participation that are located at the intersection between different disciplinary domains. The particular form of participatory action discussed here ideally takes place on the street, in squares, and on public ground, via interventions that are often temporary in nature and involve the transformation, but even more fundamentally the re-appropriation, of collective space. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, among its numerous repercussions, has also made it difficult if not impossible to carry out such forms of participation in person and on public ground. It has thus become necessary to modify and reformulate the ways in which participatory action is implemented, so as to continue harnessing its communicative power, and to identify new ways of fostering participation, at a time when it is needed more urgently than ever to counteract the risk of isolation. In this paper, we present and discuss forms of participatory action that have recently been transposed into virtual public space and are primarily based on the sharing of images. We investigate the possibilities and valences of such an approach, both in general and at this specific historical moment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Future of Innovative Workplaces A socio-spatial investigation of interaction patterns in accelerator and incubator workplaces

The Covid-19 pandemic was a catalyst towards shaping the future of the workplace. This shit from a physical workplace to a virtual one was an eye-opener to many organizations, especially innovative workplaces (incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces, and FabLabs) to adapt to a more flexible mode of working. This resulted in second-guessing the importance of the physical environment and its influence on shaping organizational culture. The aim of this study is to build an understanding of the parameters needed to shape decisions made towards changing the mode of working in innovative workplace. For this purpose, this research investigates the major influences that lead to the emergence of organizational cultures, from organizational goals, spatial influences, social structure, and technology. Using analytical and empirical methods of research to assess human behavior in the physical environment of accelerator and incubator programs, calculated decisions can be made in implementing new modes of working to innovative workplaces without impacting their organizational culture. Founders Factory, an accelerator and incubator program in London, was used as a case study. The research investigated the company's organizational goals, social structure, and workspace. The results suggest that interaction patterns in accelerator and incubator workplaces are driven by organizational goals and common social ties, but space plays a major factor in spontaneous face-to-face interactions allowing for easier communication patterns. © 2022 Proceedings 13th International Space Syntax Symposium, SSS 2022. All rights reserved.

Use of Digital Technologies to Maintain Older Adults' Social Ties During Visitation Restrictions in Long-Term Care Facilities: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Digital technologies were implemented to address the disruption of long-term care facility residents' socialization needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A literature review regarding this topic is needed to inform public policy, facility managers, family caregivers, and nurses and allied health professionals involved in mediating the use of digital devices for residents' social ties. OBJECTIVE: Our study outlines key concepts, methodologies, results, issues, and gaps in articles published during pandemic-related visitation restrictions. METHODS: Following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) protocol, a scoping review was conducted by searching 3 database aggregator platforms (EBSCO, ProQuest, and PubMed) for studies published in peer-reviewed journals from early 2020 to the end of June 2021, when the most stringent restrictions were in place. We included qualitative and quantitative studies, reviews, commentaries, viewpoints, and letters to the editors in French or English focusing on digital technologies aiming to support the social contact of residents in long-term care facilities during pandemic-related visitation restrictions. RESULTS: Among 763 screened articles, 29 met our selection criteria. For each study, we characterized the (1) authors, title, and date of the publication; (2) country of the first author; (3) research fields; (4) article type; and (5) type of technology mentioned. The analysis distinguished 3 main themes emerging from the literature: (1) impact and expectations of remote social contact on the physical and mental health and well-being of the residents (n=12), (2) with whom or what the social contact took place (n=17), and (3) limitations and barriers to significant social contact related to digital technologies (n=14). The results first underlined the highly positive impact expected by the authors of the digital technologies on health and quality of life of residents of long-term care facilities. Second, they highlighted the plurality of ties to consider, since social contact takes place not only with family caregivers to maintain contact but also for other purposes (end-of-life videoconferences) and with other types of contact (eg, with staff and robots). Third, they exposed the limitations and barriers to significant contact using digital technologies and outlined the required conditions to enable them. CONCLUSIONS: The review demonstrated the opportunities and risks outlined by the literature about the implementation of digital technologies to support remote social contact. It showed the plurality of ties to consider and revealed the need to evaluate the positive impact of remote contact from the residents' perspectives. Therefore, to go beyond the risk of digital solutionism, there is a need for studies considering the holistic impact on health regarding the implementation of digital technologies, including the meaning residents give to interpersonal exchanges and the organizational constraints. TRIAL REGISTRATION: OSF Registries osf.io/yhpx3; https://osf.io/yhpx3.

The effect of perceived financial risk on purchase intention in Pakistan

Purpose The purpose is to understand the fundamental mechanism of the consumer decision-making process and how perceived financial risk of search and experience goods influences electronic word-of-mouth adoption (e-WOMA) on social networking sites (SNSs), which will lead to purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on information processing theory, the study conceptualizes a moderated mediation model to investigate the underlying influence of perceived financial risk and online social ties on e-WOMA and the subsequent effect on online purchase intention. Survey data from 275 individuals were analyzed through statistical tools using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings The results revealed that e-WOMA mediates the effect of perceived financial risk of search and experience goods on online purchase intention. Strength of online social ties on SNSs positively moderates the electric word of mouth adoption for both the experience and search goods. Research limitations The limitation of this study was about the researcher's restrictions related to the length of the survey. Moreover, causal explanations can't be deduced as this is a cross-sectional study. Practical implications This research offers insight into the consumers that allow marketers to dive into the target market. Marketers should focus on social ties importance while selling products/services of markets online. Originality/value The study is novel in the context of an emerging economy to educate marketers on the product categorization of search goods and experience goods based on financial risk.

Strong social ties and adherence to face mask wearing in COVID-19 pandemic in Dagestan, North Caucasus

Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between the application of the personal protection equipment and strong social ties? We look at face-masks wearing in Dagestan republic in southern Russia. The social context of Covid-19 in Russia has not been exhaustively analyzed yet and medical landscapes in the post-Soviet context differ significantly from the Western models. We believe that such artifacts as face-masks are good for tracing relations between people, the virus, and the state. Contrary to the research based on data from the United States and China, our research reveals that there is not necessarily a cause-and--effect relationship between mask wearing and strong social ties. Face masks in Dagestan never became embodied artifacts despite strong social ties in the republic. Cultural and political context needs to be considered when thinking about the relationship between the strength of social ties and application of PPE. © 2022, Polska Akademia Nauk. All rights reserved.

The Making and Breaking of Social Ties During the Pandemic. Socio-Economic Position, Demographic Characteristics, and Changes in Social Networks.

Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Yet, research has only begun to understand the wider social consequences of these interventions. This study investigates how individuals' social networks have changed since the outbreak of the pandemic and how this is related to individuals' socio-economic positions and their socio-demographic characteristics. Based on a large quota sample of the German adult population, we investigate the loss and gain of strong and weak social ties during the pandemic. While about one third of respondents reported losing of contact with acquaintances, every fourth person has lost contact to a friend. Forming new social ties occurs less frequently. Only 10-15% report having made new acquaintances (15%) or friends (10%) during the pandemic. Overall, more than half of our respondents did not report any change, however. Changes in social networks are linked to both socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics, such as age, gender, education, and migration background, providing key insights into a yet underexplored dimension of pandemic-related social inequality.

The social pandemic from SARS-CoV-2 among Italian university students: a pilot study

The impact of restrictions on movement resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may contribute to a disruption of mental health in young people during this era. In March 2021, lockdown restrictions were enforcing national policies of tackling the infectious disease across the globe. In the early stages of the vaccination rollout, public enquires on confidence to endure the virus pandemic have shown high levels of psychological distress. Under the above circumstances, 333 university students were asked to fill in an online-based survey on alcohol consumption, compulsive behavior as a loss of control over eating, fear of weight changes, excessive sleepiness and sleep deprivation. Text mining and multiple correspondence analysis were employed to analyze qualitative data on the lived experience against the occurrence of healthrelated behaviors. Data analyses have showed that the pandemic was associated with a mixed breakup of clustered lemmas based on sex, age, and relationship status. The extent to which the participants have reported a lower degree of satisfaction on living arrangements, intimate and family relationships were interpreted as meaningfully related with a more negative lived experience. Social confinement has resulted as an immediate action for mitigating a public health crisis from the SARS-CoV-2 disease. Incidentally, social measures to mitigate the virus transmission have sought to protect internal collapse of the health care systems by reducing the number of casualties. Conversely, these findings provide new evidence on the social determinants of health among youth and consequently highlight the potential interference from missing social interactions in the COVID-19 pandemic response. © Author (s).

The influence of social and economic ties to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe.

By late January 2020, the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) had reached Europe and most European countries had registered cases by March 1. However, the spread of the virus has been uneven in both prevalence and speed of propagation. We analyse the association of social, economic, and demographic factors in the initial spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 across 23 European countries between March 1 and April 30, 2020. Diagnosed COVID-19 cases from Johns Hopkins University and data from the European Social Survey and other sources were used to estimate bivariate associations between cumulative reported case numbers at ten-day intervals and nine social, demographic, and economic variables. To avoid overfitting, we first reduce these variables to three factors by factor analysis before conducting a multiple regression analysis. We also perform a sensitivity analysis using rates and new cases between two time periods. Results showed that social and economic factors are strongly and positively associated with COVID-19 throughout the studied period, while the association with population density and cultural factors was initially low, but by April, was higher than the earlier mentioned factors. For future influenza-like pandemics, implementing strict movement restrictions from early on will be crucial to curb the spread of such diseases in economically, socially, and culturally vibrant and densely populated countries. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12546-021-09257-1.