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.

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.

Food (in)security, the moral economy, and Ubuntu in South Africa: a Southern perspective

COVID-19 and rising energy costs have highlighted the interconnectedness of class, gender, race, and food insecurity. This article focuses on three interrelated arguments: the paradox of growing food surpluses alongside hunger and malnutrition;the role of a reconfigured Ubuntu philosophy;and two organisations that, despite central government's failure to prioritise food provision as a moral and human rights issue, are operationalising Ubuntu. Critical re-appraisal of Ubuntu regarding food insecurity has been a neglected area of research. In drawing from the moral economy, we make an urgent case for a Southern perspective of Ubuntu as a more nuanced, dynamic, and holistic approach for addressing excess food production and indigence. Using qualitative analysis to examine community projects in South Africa, namely, Abalimi Bezekhaya in the Eastern and Western Cape and Siyavuna Abalimi in KwaZulu-Natal, Ubuntu is shown to offer a radical solution where collective structural organisation is sensitive to nutritional needs and grounded on communal responsibility rather than profits.

Channelling discomfort through the arts: A Covid-19 case study through an intercultural telecollaboration project

In this article we argue, in the context of the current dominance of the performative and instrumental drives characterizing the accountable university, that language and intercultural communication education in universities should also be humanistic, addressing ‘discomforting themes' to sensitize students to issues of human suffering and engage them in constructive and creative responses to that suffering. We suggest that arts-based methods can be used and illustrate this with an intercultural telecollaboration project created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. In this way language and intercultural communication education can become a site of personal and social transformation albeit modest and piecemeal as part of a longer process. Through arts-based methodologies and pedagogies of discomfort, Argentinian and US undergraduates explored how the theme of the Covid-19 crisis has been expressed artistically in their countries, and then communicated online, using English as their lingua franca, to design in mixed international groups artistic multimodal creations collaboratively to channel their suffering and trauma associated with the pandemic. This article analyses and evaluates the project. Data comprise the students' artistic multimodal creations, their written statements describing their creations, and pre and post online surveys. Our findings indicate that students began a process of transformation of disturbing affective responses by creating artwork and engaging in therapeutic social and civic participation transnationally, sharing their artistic creations using social media. We highlight the powerful humanistic role of education involving artistic expression, movement, performativity, and community engagement in order to channel discomforting feelings productively at personal and social levels.

Food (in)security, the moral economy, and Ubuntu in South Africa: a Southern perspective

COVID-19 and rising energy costs have highlighted the interconnectedness of class, gender, race, and food insecurity. This article focuses on three interrelated arguments: the paradox of growing food surpluses alongside hunger and malnutrition;the role of a reconfigured Ubuntu philosophy;and two organisations that, despite central government's failure to prioritise food provision as a moral and human rights issue, are operationalising Ubuntu. Critical re-appraisal of Ubuntu regarding food insecurity has been a neglected area of research. In drawing from the moral economy, we make an urgent case for a Southern perspective of Ubuntu as a more nuanced, dynamic, and holistic approach for addressing excess food production and indigence. Using qualitative analysis to examine community projects in South Africa, namely, Abalimi Bezekhaya in the Eastern and Western Cape and Siyavuna Abalimi in KwaZulu-Natal, Ubuntu is shown to offer a radical solution where collective structural organisation is sensitive to nutritional needs and grounded on communal responsibility rather than profits. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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.

Social Economy Futures in the Context of COVID-19

This brief article explores two key questions that have emerged for the social economy in the COVID-19 context: 1) the nature of the relationship between social economy actors and the State, and 2) the possibility for social transformation going forward. This article engages with a dialogue entitled “Autonomous Community Action and Its Transformational Potential at a Territorial Level: An Ongoing Dialogue Between Research and Practice.”. © 2021, University of Alberta Library. All rights reserved.

The Journey of Engineering into Social Justice and Peacebuilding: A Review of the XV Conference of the International Network of Engineering, Social Justice and Peace

Since 2005, and thanks to the fostering of an interdisciplinary team of experts, academics, researchers, activists, engineers or related to it, the International Conference on Engineering, Social Justice and Peace arises, in the search for alternative approaches to make, live and educate in engineering. During this evolution of calendars and geography, fourteen meetings of the Engineering, Social Justice and Peace network had taken place, and number 15 was destined to be exceptional. Unintentionally, the fifteenth meeting had very different circumstances from the previous ones, not due to the ability to convene, or the growing interest in working on engineering committed to nature, society and human beings, but due to a historical situation that has made us rethink what until some time ago we took for granted. This event has been brewing since 2019, under the premise of being held in 2020. With several initiatives of the event, there was a work team, the approval of several presentations, workshops and activities, a tentative schedule, and the approach of the recognition "Technologies for Social Justice." However, nature gave us a warning cry to human beings and the coronavirus appeared on the scene, causing many transformations worldwide. Therefore, the event was postponed until 2021, and adjusted to the virtuality that has accompanied us since the health emergency arose due to the pandemic. In this context, adjustments were made to the composition of the team and the responsibilities assumed by its members. Still, despite the difficulties that this new scenario poses, the commitment to social transformation marked the way forward for the conference. After several meetings and tasks, between June 10 and 12, 2021, the XV International Conference on Engineering, Social Justice and Peace sees the light, with the promises of transforming our society from a diversity of ways of doing and living. This paper seeks to systematize the experience of the organizing team of the conference, so that the successes and errors that they had during the process are transformed into useful learning for the transformation of engineering towards one that is committed to communities.

Mattering in allied youth fields: Summoning the call of Black Lives Matter to radically affirm youth through programming

Few rallying cries have rung out louder and more effectively for social transformation than Black Lives Matter. The irrefutable power and popularity of "those three words" have catapulted the Black Lives Matter movement to the forefront of global-wide discussions and action for overturning racist social policies that keep Black life at the margins. Black Lives Matter movement projects emerged as community responses to extra-legal, unwarranted violence primarily against Black youth, which was captured typically on bystanders' cellphone videos and dispersed via social media outlets. Yet, what exactly is Black Lives Matter? How do the tragedies of COVID-19 and extrajudicial anti-Black violence-referenced as "dual pandemics"-shape the experiences of already marginalized youth? What lessons does Black Lives Matter offer for our work with youth in ways that are responsive to the Science of Learning and Development? And, how can those within the allied youth fields center mattering in programming to radically affirm the lives of racially and ethnically marginalized community members across the learning ecosystem? This chapter discusses these questions and poses insights based on what has started to glean during a school-based youth program called The Black Boy Mattering Project. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Incorporation of the 2030 Agenda in the Design of Local Policies for Social Transformation in Disadvantaged Urban Areas

According to the United Nations, the current COVID-19 crisis is threatening decades of development gains. This situation is aggravated in disadvantaged urban areas where 25% of the world’s population lives. Such concentration has aggravated the multidimensional problem that requires an integrated policy approach. Internationally, this approach has materialized in the formulation of global policies such as the 2030 Agenda. However, many doubts remain about the extent to which global policy such as the 2030 Agenda is able to inspire the formulation of local policies from the multidimensional perspective proposed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To answer this question, in this contribution we rely on a comparative case study of two public policies aimed at promoting the social inclusion of the most vulnerable groups in the urban context: the “Andalusian Regional Strategy for Social Cohesion and Inclusion. Intervention in disadvantaged areas” (ERACIS) and the “Barcelona Strategy for Inclusion and Reduction of Social Inequalities 2017–2027”. The results show how the government sphere, the logic of intervention, and other aspects of policy design influence the incorporation of the principles of the 2030 Agenda in local policies, highlighting both risks and potentials of such policy transfer, crucial to the effective achievement of the SDGs. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

The pandemic: a time of fears, prayer, and social transformations

The article analyses social behaviours characterising Polish society in the face of an epidemiological threat, both in the past and contemporarily. It shows how the fear of falling ill limited, and limits, the functioning of Polish society during times of epidemics. Furthermore, it highlights many similarities in how Polish people behaved during times of plague in the 17th century and during the current Covid-19 pandemic, while simultaneously exposing the differences. These differences are particularly visible in popular attitudes towards religion. Whilst in the past, widespread illness and death were met with an increase in religiousity and communal devotion, currently, access to places of worship has been significantly limited. This is especially visible in the case of popular pilgrimage sites, many of which have closed down as a direct result of the pandemic. © 2021 Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze. All rights reserved.

[Comment] The challenges of planetary mental health in the COVID-19 era.

As the focus of the COVID-19 crisis is gradually taken away from emergency healthcare needs, increased attention is warranted on the psychological impact of the pandemic on a global level. Existing guidance on managing the COVID-19 related distress needs to be better informed by upcoming larger-scale research. Applying e-Health can be useful in dealing with the immediate psychological needs, while developing strategies to identify vulnerable populations and shifting the provision of mental health and social care to community services need to be prioritised when looking at the future. Focusing on global mental health during this universal crisis is an opportunity for promoting a more compassionate and less discriminating society.