Donald Trump, dominating masculine necropolitics, and COVID-19

This article discusses US president, Donald J. Trump and what the author labels his "dominating masculine necropolitics". Dominating masculinity involves commanding and controlling specific interactions, and exercising power and control over people and events-"calling the shots" and "running the show". Differing from hegemonic masculinities, dominating masculinities do not necessarily legitimate a hierarchical relationship between men and women, masculinity and femininity, and among masculinities. In that sense, then, dominating masculinities are often, but not always, analytically distinct from hegemonic masculinities. Trump's specific form of dominating masculinity involved commanding and controlling specific interactions, and exercising power and control over people and events;he called the shots and ran the show, demanded strict obedience to his authority, and displayed a lack of concern for the opinions of others. Throughout Trump's presidency, this dominating masculinity centered on several critical features, which were emphasized or de-emphasized depending upon the context. The arrival and spread of Covid-19 around the world provided a new and dangerous context within which Trump's dominating masculinity has been increasingly constructed through novel necropolitical practices. Although Trump's medical experts continued to advocate for mitigation in order to minimize the spread of the virus, Trump unwaveringly stayed on message by continually downplaying the danger of the virus. Trump's dominating masculine necropolitics especially involved flouting guidelines for mask wearing. The culprit for the staggering spread of Covid-19 and premature death within the United States is Trump and his dominating masculine necropolitical discourse and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Necropolítica e governo Jair Bolsonaro: repercussões na seguridade social brasileira

Este artigo busca problematizar o avanço do modelo ultraneoliberal presente no governo Bolsonaro e seus impactos na política de seguridade social brasileira, enquanto política pública e como tal, dever do Estado. O avanço das contrarreformas reacionárias destrói os sustentáculos essenciais da política de seguridade social: a saúde, previdência e assistência social. A metodologia escolhida consiste na pesquisa bibliográfica a partir de produções científicas publicadas em artigos e livros, como também, jornais e revistas sobre a temática. A agenda ultraneoliberal impõe uma perseguição sem precedentes aos direitos historicamente conquistados. Em tempos de pandemia pela Covid-19, as contradições da política de negação de direitos se evidenciam. O bolsonarismo tem implementado como política oficial a necropolítica, que advém de um domínio autoritário de definir quem deve morrer e quem merece viver, aprofundando ainda mais a barbárie social contra a classe trabalhadora.Alternate :This article seeks to problematize the advancement of the ultraneoliberal model present in the Bolsonaro government and its impacts on the Brazilian social security policy, as a public policy and as such, the duty of the State. The advance of reactionary counter-reforms destroys the essential pillars of the social security policy: health, social security and social assistance. The chosen methodology consists of bibliographic research based on scientific productions published in articles and books, as well as newspapers and magazines on the subject. The ultraneoliberal agenda imposes an unprecedented pursuit of the rights historically won. In pandemic times for Covid-19, the contradictions of the denial of rights policy are evident. Bolsonarism has implemented necropolitics as an official policy, which comes from an authoritarian domain of defining who should die and who deserves to live, further deepening the social barbarism against the working class.

A comparison study of topic modeling based literature analysis by using full texts and abstracts of scientific articles: a case of COVID-19 research

PurposeHow to extract useful information from a very large volume of literature is a great challenge for librarians. Topic modeling technique, which is a machine learning algorithm to uncover latent thematic structures from large collections of documents, is a widespread approach in literature analysis, especially with the rapid growth of academic literature. In this paper, a comparison of topic modeling based literature analysis has been done using full texts and s of articles.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a comparison study of topic modeling on full-text paper and corresponding to assess the influence of the different types of documents been used as input for topic modeling. In particular, the authors use the large volumes of COVID-19 research literature as a case study for topic modeling based literature analysis. The authors illustrate the research topics, research trends and topic similarity of COVID-19 research by using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and topic visualization method.FindingsThe authors found 14 research topics for COVID-19 research. The authors also found that the topic similarity between using full-text paper and corresponding is higher when more documents are analyzed.Originality/valueFirst, this study contributes to the literature analysis approach. The comparison study can help us understand the influence of the different types of documents on the results of topic modeling analysis. Second, the authors present an overview of COVID-19 research by summarizing 14 research topics for it. This automated literature analysis can help specialists in the health and medical domain or other people to quickly grasp the structured morphology of the current studies for COVID-19.

New development: Ethical dilemmas and emotional labour—what can we learn from the shared Covid-19 crisis?

IMPACTThis article will be of value to public officials and managers who are grappling with the ethical questions arising from public sector work and service delivery. This is especially relevant in the context of Covid-19 where new forms of emotional labour are emerging. Procurement officers and politicians are encouraged to consider the possibilities of unethical behaviour and the consequences.

Lifestyle audits in South Africa – overrated or X-factor?

PurposePresident Cyril Ramaphosa, in his 2018 State of the Nation Address, stated that "Thieves who are stealing public funds should be arrested and prosecuted”, and called for lifestyle audits of public-sector employees. The gross misuse of COVID-19 relief funds by public officials indicated the urgent need to execute these audits as an anti-corruption measure. This paper aims to provide a review of the existing state of affairs with regard to the application of lifestyle audits in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThis paper critically analyses the literature available on the current position of South Africa concerning lifestyle audits in the public sector, based on the mandates of some of the anti-corruption agencies that could be responsible for the conducting and processing of such audits.FindingsSouth Africa has only recently seen a framework for applying lifestyle audits, developed by the Department of Public Service and Administration. Although these first steps in developing a standard practice are laudable, the practical process of dealing with misconduct and/or criminal matters remains to be seen. It is recommended that South Africa consider a legislative approach to dealing with unlawfully obtained wealth by either criminalising the act of illicit enrichment (per the United Nations Convention Against Corruption) or creating an Unexplained Wealth Order, as seen, for example, in the UK.Originality/valueSouth Africa is in dire need of addressing corruption in the public sector. Despite lifestyle audits being called for, the lack of proper implementation is negating any positive outcomes. Therefore, alternative solutions should be investigated.

Navigating COVID-19 linguistic landscapes in Vancouver's North Shore: official signs, grassroots literacy artefacts, monolingualism, and discursive convergence

This article describes the changing linguistic landscape on the North Shore of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. I present an account of the visual representation of change along the area's parks and trails, which remained open for socially-distanced exercise during the province's lockdown. Following the principles of visual, walking ethnography, I walked through numerous locations, observing and recording the visual representations of the province's policies and discourses of lockdown and social distancing. Examples of change were most evident in the rapid addition to social space of top-down signs, characterised mainly by multimodality and monolingualism, strategically placed in ways that encouraged local people to abide by social-distancing. However, through this process of observation and exploration, I noticed grassroots semiotic artefacts such as illustrated stones with images and messages that complemented the official signs of the provincial government. As was the case with the official signs and messages, through a process of discursive convergence, these grassroots artefacts performed a role of conveying messages and discourses of social distancing, public pedagogy, and community care.

Abolition as Durational Performance: Mutual Aid Aesthetics in Chicago's Southeast Asian Neighborhood

Responses to rising anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted multiple, often conflicting, actions including calls to defund the police, calls for more police, bystander interventions, and the exploitation of violence to promote influencers' brands. In Chicago's "Argyle" Uptown neighborhood, an area known as a Southeast Asian refugee business district, Asian Americans and local white government officials promoting liberal multiculturalist urban renewal projects used the news after the Atlanta spa shooting to advance their plans for gentrification and increased policing. How do we understand the colliding narratives of racial antagonisms, racial solidarities, and the genocidal logics of urban renewal, as they emerge at the intersection of settler colonialism and the afterlife of slavery? How is this question complicated by the entwined issues of refugee resettlement and multiculturalist solutions to anti-Asian violence? In this article, I argue abolition as durational performance offers an embodied, performance studies based analytic and methodology for the study and praxis of abolition. Abolition as durational performance centers the creation of life-affirming institutions, relations, and spaces while navigating the histories and bodily impacts of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, native genocide, and US liberal war on refugee resettlement as it is enacted through urban renewal and redevelopment projects. I focus on Axis Lab, a community-based arts and architecture organization based in Chicago, which launched its mutual aid and public arts project in June 2020. This is an abolitionist project inspired by the Black Panther breakfast and political education programs.

Introduction: A Call to Engage with Denial

Cruz was appointed as head of the General Directorate of Public Health in 1903, at a time when yellow fever had killed a thousand people in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone the previous year. The newspaper printed a portrait of a man suffering from a grisly tumor in late October 1904 and claimed that vaccines caused his ailment.8 The newspaper explained that vaccines were the, "monster that pollutes the pure and innocent blood of our children with the vile excretions expelled from sick animals, of a nature that contaminates the system of any living being. "9 This newspaper article argued that it was providing the public with the "information" it needed to evaluate the government's mandates.10 It is an example of coordinated efforts to spread mis/disinformation by the press as part of the effort to create a public campaign against Alves' public health policy. Uprisings, which were also taking place in the industrial workers' neighborhoods and the Afro-Brazilian districts with fierce hand-to-hand combat, were eventually put down and citizens were pressured to retreat by the army advancing by land and the threat of bombardment by the navy docked just offshore.11 The state used repressive measures (imprisonment, beatings, interrogation, and internal exile) and put the instigators, including Senator Lauro Sodré and military officers, on trial following the uprising.12 The government declared a "state of siege" and the uprising was controlled in three days.13 However, although the government had survived the assault, the Alves administration was forced to abandon its vaccine mandate and smallpox continued to plague the country for several more years, slowing plans to modernize.

Government support to Pakistani women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeUnder the unique context of COVID-19, this paper aims to analyze how the Government of Pakistan (GoP) provides financial and non-financial support to women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Drawing on the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship (RBTE), the study advances the understanding of resources and grants offered by GoP to women entrepreneurs to help them in business survival.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts qualitative research method to address the questions: how does the Pakistani government respond to issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what assistance and initiatives were implemented by GoP? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty on-job government officials related to the entrepreneurial sector in Pakistan.FindingsThe paper reveals that during the pandemic, GoP keenly communicated with women entrepreneurial representatives to comprehend their business challenges. In addition, waivers and incentives were provided to support their business activities. GoP further invited women entrepreneurs to contribute their knowledge and give suggestions in policy making.Originality/valueLots of research have been conducted to identify the issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. However, the specific strategies, policies, and support provided by the governments to address these issues have often been overlooked. This paper fills such gap with focus on the governing bodies and policymakers in Pakistan towards women entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 crisis.

Understanding factors related to decision making by state health officials in a public health emergency

Background and Purpose - State Health Officials (SHOs), as the leaders of state governmental public health agencies, play a critical role in their respective states. Their decisions guide the overall actions of their organizations in executing programs, policies and activities that ultimately affect the health of the state's population. This study will add to the research and serve as a potential guide to future SHO training, specific to decision making, in a public health emergencyMethods - Twenty-one individuals, who are either currently working as SHOs or who were former SHOs, were interviewed to understand their perspectives on issues that may impact their response to a public health emergency: decision-making, interaction with the public and the media and the role of politics in public health, and other areas of consequence. Results - While the study was focused more broadly, all of the respondents specifically mentioned the COVID19 pandemic as the most complicated public health emergency they have responded to as a SHO. All respondents also mentioned that they did not have a specific decision-making tool to utilize during this emergency and primarily relied on a consensus-driven decision-making process. Additionally, issues such as the challenges of managing the media and the politicization of public health during this pandemic, were mentioned by many of the respondents. Conclusion - These findings pointed to the need for a step-by-step decision-making tool to be utilized by SHOs in a public health emergency. This has the potential to lead to a more methodical approach to SHOs decision-making during a public health emergency, including a focus on various operational aspects such as understanding the role of the media in a public health emergency, managing elected officials in a public health emergency, and lessons learned from past public health emergencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Crisis Communications on Social Media: Insights from Canadian Officials Twitter Presence during COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic is a unique case in crisis management given its length, scale, several different response systems, and public officials' extensive social media use for crisis communication. Leveraging text mining techniques, we examine Canadian officials' presence on Twitter during the pandemic by focusing on their COVID-19-related content. We identified eight themes of discussion that unveil 37 relevant subthemes. Concentrating on the COVID-19-addressing themes, we reveal that educating citizens on the safety information and keeping them informed with the latest crisis information was the Canadian officials' primary focus during the pandemic. To fight COVID-19, Canadian officials used four policies, and to implement those, they promoted eight measures and practices. According to the volume of generated content, the evolution of COVID-19-addressing themes over time, and their coexistence;Test and trace was the most advocated policy by emphasizing screening the symptoms. To stop the spread of COVID-19, Canadian officials promoted wearing Mask, Social distancing, Hand washing, and Stay home, where Mask and Social distancing were the most frequent practices. Our study contributes to crisis communication and management by depicting how Canadian officials leveraged social media during such a big-scale crisis. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Managing the COVID-19 crisis by fiscal strategies: Lessons from four countries

The COVID-19 Crisis is urgent, global in scale, and has generated a massive impact globally. During the outbreak of the crisis, well-designed fiscal strategies play a critical role in effective crisis management. This article uses an international and comparative perspective to find fiscal strategies used by four countries including China, South Korea, the United States, and Italy to manage the COVID-19 crisis for the period of April 2020 to December 2021. It examines key similarities and differences regarding to these major fiscal strategies adopted by the four countries. This article offers important lessons and summarizes effective practices for other countries that were considering fiscal strategies to manage and deal with the economic and fiscal impacts induced by the COVID-19 crisis.

Official Information on Twitter during the Pandemic in Spain

This article shows the use of Twitter that the main official spokespersons of the Spanish government made during the first weeks of the pandemic, with the aim of analyzing how government health campaigns were managed during the exceptional period of the state of alarm to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and whether the instructions in terms of institutional management of communication to combat the infodemic set by the World Health Organization (WHO) were followed. This research considers the diffusion of official information in different phases of the first three months of the government's action (102 days) from the outbreak of COVID-19 in Spain (March 2020) and how it developed its approach to crisis communication using the Twitter accounts of the President of the Spanish government (@sanchezcastejon), front-line leaders and the Ministry of Health (@sanidadgob), the main public institution responsible for health crisis management with the hashtags #EsteVirusLoParamosUnidos and #COVID-19. The results of a sample of 750 tweets reveal how the official sources used a model of online communication with a particular emphasis on informative and motivational tweets from leaders aimed at audiences (media and the general public). At the same time, there is also an instructive function about the pandemic towards audiences (general public and companies), with the Ministry and health authorities playing a key, proactive role in an attempt to achieve informative transparency to mitigate the pandemic and infodemic.

Assessing and intervening with children who have been traumatized

Nearly a billion children have had their lives disrupted by the 2019-2021 SARS CoV 2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2;COVID-19) global pandemic, with some estimates suggesting that the economic devastation may result in nearly 725 million children living in poverty in the absence of any mitigating policies (UNICEF, 2020). Given the likelihood of trauma exposure and the almost certainty of being impacted by the global pandemic, it is vital for educators, parents, and public health officials to have a better understanding of the neuropsychological factors underscoring both trauma and resilience in order to better meet the needs of our students. After all, not all children exposed to trauma and adversity experience detrimental outcomes, and many children are capable of devising internal coping and resilience strategies to grow from these experiences. This chapter discusses the various types of trauma that children typically encounter, how trauma impacts key regions in the brain responsible for learning and social-skills development, offer assessment strategies, and suggest targeted intervention strategies for schools and parents in light of some of the unprecedented circumstances our children must face. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

El rol de los intelectuales en tiempos de pandemia: comprendiendo el activismo político de Noam Chomsky

Este artículo busca analizar el rol de algunos intelectuales durante los primeros meses de la pandemia de la covid-19, entendiendo en qué sentido su discurso se asume como un contrapeso a la hegemonía de los expertos en el tema de la salud. Tomamos como objeto de estudio varios enunciados ejemplares de Noam Chomsky, lingüista y activista político estadounidense, que se produjeron desde principios de marzo hasta mayo de 2020 en relación con la covid-19. Intentamos comprender los puntos principales que marcan el discurso de Chomsky relacionándolos con el ethos discursivo (Maingueneau, 2020) de un "compromiso intelectual" (Bourdieu, 2003). Queremos entender cómo se construye la trayectoria de la imagen pública de Chomsky como activista político, a partir de su definición como uno de los mayores intelectuales vivos del mundo, y cómo él y ciertos medios de comunicación utilizan ese tipo de credencial para erigirse en una figura poderosa, siempre demandada para hablar de cualquier tema de actualidad, incluso una pandemia. Nos sustentamos sobre la hipótesis de que, para Chomsky, la explicación de los hechos históricos se hace siempre con una visión holística, conectando la pandemia de la covid-19 con otros problemas mayores y otras amenazas para la humanidad. En otras palabras, Chomsky se asume a sí mismo como portavoz de la humanidad, preocupado por problemas mayores: una pandemia no puede ser subestimada, pero el calentamiento global y la crisis económica creada por la debacle del neoliberalismo, así como las posibilidades de guerra nuclear, son amenazas mucho mayores para la supervivencia de la especie humana y el mantenimiento del planeta.También aportamos una visión general de tres importantes intelectuales que igualmente actuaron y contribuyeron con sus reflexiones sobre la pandemia de la covid-19 durante sus meses iniciales: se trata de Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben y Byung-Chul Han. El propósito de traer estas distintas visiones es, en una primera instancia, comparar hasta qué punto pueden asemejarse al discurso chomskyano, pero sobre todo cómo se construye el discurso intelectual en tiempos de pandemia global frente a los discursos de los expertos o especialistas en salud que ocupan los espacios de autoridad discursivos en los medios de comunicación durante una crisis sanitaria.Alternate abstract:This article aims to analyze the role of intellectuals in times of a global pandemic, whereby their discourse is assumed as a counterbalance to the hegemony of experts. It takes as a case study several exemplar speeches by Noam Chomsky, linguist and political activist, which were produced since the beginning of March 2020 regarding Covid-l9.We w'll try to show that what marks Chomsky's discourse is related to the ethos (Maingueneau 2020) of an "intellectual engagement" (Bourdieu 2003).Within the universe of possibilities for choosing intellectuals' speeches, who are not necessarily convergent on topics affecting the world, and who, in general, don't talk about the same things, we chose to circumscribe our research on a specific intellectual: Noam Chomsky. In our view, he is an actual example of "intellectual action", representing properly "the relations between intellectuals and power" (Bobbio l997).Therefore, it is necessary to understand the statements of intellectuals like Chomsky in moments of global uncertainty, and as a discourse of a different nature that stands against the experts' power in major media corporations or in government technocracy. Thus, far from wanting to exhaust the possibilities of interpreting the role of the wider category of intellectuals during the pandemic, our proposal is to outline the main points of how an intellectual like Chomsky has been developing and taking the same political positions since the beginning of his activism, in the 1960s, which refers to a type of intellectual engagement similar to that taken since the Dreyfus Affair. In the Dreyfus Affair we have an "inaugural archetype" of the concept of an "engaged intellectual" (Bourdieu 2003, p. 73-74), from which the one who has social capital as an erudite, a scientist or a writer, comes out publicly criticizing the established powers and denounces crimes committed by "the reasons of State" (Chomsky 1973). Therefore, we understand that Chomsky comes from a lineage whose representatives are inserted into a form of intellectual activism;a lineage that became known as "the century of intellectuals" (Winock 2000), the intellectual conceived as the one who "tells the truth", as Chomsky (1996, p. 55) himself define the "intellectual's responsibility": "At one level, the answer is too easy: the intellectual responsibility of the writer, or any decent person, is to tell the truth." On the one hand, there is a patent argument of authority behind the experts, based on a "scientific discourse", but, on the other hand, there is a kind of "moral commitment to the truth" behind the intellectuals' discourse that becomes a "deeper criticism". That is, a holistic view to ponder, in the case of Covid-19, the humanitarian problems created due to the pandemic, but also to think about relating this crisis to previous and further geopolitical reasons, from a freer position, not committed to companies and States. This position of the intellectual engagement is idealized in opposition to the "normal science discourse": the genre of the scientific discourse is produced under official means;it is plastered, blunted, does not allow the spokespeople of science to speak beyond what their research allows. In other words, the scientific experts are inscribed in discursive structures of "scenes of enunciation" (Maingueneau, 2006) that don't permit them to surpass the barriers of "objectiveness" and enter the field of moral judgment. Seeking to understand how Chomsky acts as an engaged intellectual during the pandemic, we searched his political network and the media in which he is involved. From that, we chose our corpus of analysis, selected from Noam Chomsky's innumerous speeches to a left-wing or clearly progressive press during the first months of Covid-19 pandemic in the form of interviews from March to June: an interview to Michael Brooks (2020), at the Jacobin Magazine (Brooks, M. 2020);an interview with his longtime interviewer, David Barsamian (2020), an Armenian-American journalist and political activist, published on the website Literary Hub;an interview with the British socialist newspaper Morning Star (2020);two interviews he gave to Amy Goodman (2020a, 2020b) for the American journal Democracy Now;an interview with the Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat (2020), from which we will use only the parts of the transcript that we found published by Al Jazeera and not the video;an interview to the writer Chris Brooks to the magazine Labor Notes, channel for the proletarian movement;an interview to Cristina Magdaleno (2020) for the Euroactiv, a non-profit organization for democracy in European Union, as well as an interview Chomsky and Robert Pollin gave to C. J. Polychroniou (2020).We believe that through this corpus it is possible to cover the vast majority of Chomsky's speeches on the Covid-19 pandemic, centered on media where Chomsky usually features and that name themselves as having a more progressive bias.We assume that what gives Chomsky's speech authority to talk about the pandemic, to be invited multiple times to do so, is not his expertise in the subject;it is not his background in epidemiology studies, which he lacks, neither his linguistics theories, that do not relate to the topic, but his image as a great surviving intellectual. It's to say, what authorizes Chomsky to speak and, therefore, to make his contribution to the studies of this pandemic situation, is not what interests the State, or what would lead the actions of government officials, as they are in general centered on the discourse of experts. Instead, it is his trajectory as a critic without corporate scruples, engaged in telling another kind of "truth", as one that can discuss and propose a different future for humanity. So, with this article we intended to p oduce a discussion about the following problem: the type of discourse raised by Chomsky is not that of government experts, men of science who must anchor themselves in statistical studies on disease proliferation curves, researchers who need to give prevention guidelines or economists who provide "get out of the crisis" scenarios. In other words, differently from a biologist, a disease proliferation specialist or a market administrator, Chomsky conceives the pandemic beyond Covid-19, as a long-term crisis, which will cover economic, social and environmental aspects of much greater proportions. In short, with this article we seek to understand how Chomsky assumes himself as a spokesman for all of humanity and how he constructs this position discursively. He is concerned with "bigger problems", not diminishing the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic, but insisting on the fact that global warming and the economic crisis created by the debacle of neoliberalism, as well as nuclear war menaces, are much greater threats to human species survival and the maintenance of the planet. We also bring an overview of three important intellectuals who also acted and contributed their reflections on the Covid-19 pandemic during its inception. They are Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, and Byung-Chul Han. The purpose of incorporating these distinct views is, in the first instance, to compare to what extent they may resemble the Chomskyan discourse, but also to show how intellectual discourse is constructed in times of a global pandemic in the face of the discourses of health experts orspecialists who occupy the spaces of intellectual speech authority.

The personas and motivation of religious tourists and their impact on intentions to visit religious sites in Saudi Arabia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide comprehensive, theoretical and practical knowledge that will assist decision-makers in making informed decisions when promoting several religious sites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Specifically, this study examines the popularity of several religious sites, the personas of prospective visitors and their intentions to visit.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses several methodological approaches to fulfil its main objective, namely, Google Trends analysis, K-means cluster analysis and linear regression analysis.FindingsThe results reveal that several religious sites in the KSA are popular and have potential for further consideration by various stakeholders. In addition, four personas were identified which can aid decision-makers and marketing practitioners in designing suitable plans for prospective visitors based on the participants' motivation and demographics. Furthermore, a significant association was observed among three motivational variables (self-esteem, relationship and physiological needs) and the participants' intentions to visit.Originality/valueThis study makes an original contribution to the literature, as it examines several religious sites in Saudi Arabia in addition to the sites that are part of the practices of Hajj and Umrah. Furthermore, this study provides comprehensive knowledge in this area to assist both future researchers and practitioners.

A narrative inquiry into the transformation of the school business official role amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this qualitative, narrative research study was to investigate the role of the School Business Official (SBO) and gain an understanding of how SBOs perceive their role as part of the educational system and educational leadership team, as well as better understand the adaptations and transformations they made in their role in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed a qualitative, narrative-based inquiry focused on collecting data through semi-structured interviews with individuals currently serving as SBOs and utilized a thematic approach to gain insights and restory participants' lived experiences. The study used role theory and organizational role theory as the theoretical frame. Role theory and organizational role theory were selected because they provided insight on how individuals modified their behavior based on their understanding of their roles within certain contexts. The findings of this study indicate that while the financial, accounting, and business operation functions are still primary responsibilities of the SBO role, the role has expanded to include areas such as being adaptable, driving the district mission, engaging with a variety of stakeholders and with the communities influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Suggestions on enhancing professional development and redefining the role of the SBO are included in chapter five. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Education and Rehabilitation of Incarcerated Youth during COVID-19: Views of State-Level Administrators

The present study addresses the complexities of providing education and rehabilitation to incarcerated youth during the COVID-19 crisis. A total of three state-level administrators, one supervisor for juvenile residential services health care, and one medical director of state detention centers from three states completed a survey focusing on the key domains of education, physical safety, mental health support, social support, support for physical health, and information sharing. With each domain, respondents were queried on the adequacy and basis of policies, as well as monitoring of compliance with policies and barriers to compliance. The state officials then each participated in two 45-minute interviews. Results indicate that the survey respondents found policies to be adequate across domains. Interview findings yielded across-state themes of learned capability and collaboration and/or cooperation. Additional results, as well as implications for research and practices, are discussed.

School food at home: Brazil's national school food programme (PNAE) during the COVID-19 pandemic

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have hindered students' food access, particularly low-income students who rely on schools for their primary daily meals. School food programmes have adapted to pandemic conditions by providing school food at home (SF@H). We conceptually explore the changing geographies of school food during the pandemic by examining adaptations by Brazil's national school food programme (PNAE) and then comparing it to regular school food provision. Our research is informed by 43 interviews with public officials and civil society representatives from all regions of Brazil, ranging from high-level technocrats to frontline responders engaged with school food. Rapid response through national school food policy allowed schools to provide food at home as a pandemic relief effort by creating novel alternative food geographies that keep schools at the heart of agri-food systems. SF@H provide local family farmers with an alternative commercialisation channel to those compromised because of social distancing measures. SF@H also provided students – and, for the first time, their families – with access to food during home-based learning. While this has been important, we find that even when the state provides SF@H as a pandemic relief measure, low-income families are subject to additional burdens that accentuate the inequalities previously ameliorated at schools.Alternate :ResumenEl cierre de escuelas durante la pandemia del COVID-19 ha dificultado el acceso a los alimentos de los estudiantes, en particular de los estudiantes de bajos ingresos que dependen de las escuelas para sus comidas diarias principales. Los programas de alimentación escolar se han adaptado a las condiciones de la pandemia al proporcionar alimentación escolar en el hogar (SF@H). Exploramos conceptualmente las geografías cambiantes de la alimentación escolar durante la pandemia al examinar las adaptaciones del Programa Nacional de Alimentación Escolar (PNAE) de Brasil y luego compararlo con la provisión regular de alimentos escolar. Nuestra investigación se basa en 43 entrevistas con funcionarios públicos y representantes de la sociedad civil de todas las regiones de Brasil, desde tecnócratas de alto nivel hasta personal de primera línea comprometidos con la alimentación escolar. La respuesta rápida a través de la política nacional de alimentación escolar permitió a las escuelas proporcionar alimentos en el hogar como un esfuerzo de alivio a la pandemia mediante la creación de novedosas geografías alimentarias alternativas que mantuvieron a las escuelas en el corazón de los sistemas agroalimentarios. SF@H brinda a los agricultores locales familiares un canal de comercialización alternativo para aquellos comprometidos debido a las medidas de distanciamiento social. SF@H también proporcionó a los estudiantes y, por primera vez, a sus familias, acceso a alimentos durante el aprendizaje en el hogar. Si bien esto ha sido importante, encontramos que incluso cuando el Estado proporciona SF@H como medida de alivio a la pandemia, las familias de bajos ingresos están sujetas a cargas adicionales que acentúan las desigualdades que antes se mejoraban en las escuelas.

Insights from Government Officials on Strategies and Practices for Managing the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Background: The study focuses on the challenges faced by government officials in implementing public health interventions to control the spread of COVID-19 in the Lahore District, Pakistan. Material(s) and Method(s): This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to collect data from 45 government officials involved in implementing COVID-19 control measures in Lahore District. Result(s): The study identified several themes related to the challenges faced by government officials, including contact tracing and coordination, disease management and vaccination, public perception and engagement, international travellers management, and implementation strategies. Strategies implemented to address the challenges posed by the pandemic included the utilization of technology, provision of training to staff, coordination with other organizations, identification of high transmission areas, and targeting specific communities or populations at higher risk of infection. Conclusion(s): The effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a coordinated and multi-faceted response that incorporates various strategies and practices aimed at controlling the spread of the disease and mitigating its impact on communities. The authors recommend prioritizing clear and consistent communication, community engagement, and capacity building in pandemic management strategies.Copyright © 2023 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.