Category Index

2021, issue 46, Dr. Markus Lange: The Coronavirus pandemic affects and challenges all areas of society in their respective micro-, meso- and macro-social dimensions. Related to the genuine health risks enabled by the virus, several social risks have emerged too. On the one hand, processes and routines in social areas such as healthcare, statehood, economy, and culture are either pushed to their limits, or are temporarily locked down.

2021, issue 46, Aurianne Stroude: The Coronavirus pandemic is changing the way we interact, we buy, we cook, we work, etc. It has an effect on our daily routines and also on our perceptions of time. We are stuck in the present. We have no possibilities to predict with certainty what life will be like – at an individual and collective level – in a week, in a month or in a year.

2021, issue 46, Erika Anne Hayfield: Overnight on March 16th, 2020, the small, remote island society of the Faroe Islands went into lockdown. The otherwise highly mobile people became confined to their homes, with limited freedom of movement. Some took ill, those vulnerable or potentially exposed to Coronavirus were quarantined, and the remaining population, bar essential front-line workers, were required to interact only with household members.

2021, issue 46, Claudio Pinheiro and Vinicius Kauê Ferreira: At this point in time, we are all aware of the severe transformations brought by the Covid-19 pandemic to social life at large. One very dramatic dimension concerns how people have been experiencing the passage of time, particularly our general capacity to project plans, and to foresee the future. Medical, economic and social forecasts shared space with spiritual prophecies, both, spreading as fast as contagion and both trying to make sense of what’s forthcoming. What is going to happen?

2021, issue 46, Noa Vana and Yana Feldman-Zaika: Human rights are fragile against the mighty totalitarian power of Western, democratic, law-abiding countries [1]. Refugees, the sans papier, the very old, the autistic, the chronic-pain patient, and the Muselmann are examples provided by Agamben [2] and others – e.g. [3], [4] – for people who are both forcibly excluded and included in the political order; caught in the sovereign ban.

2021, issue 46, Mihaly Szerovay and Kola Adeosun: As a result of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, lockdowns in the United Kingdom have restricted nearly every aspect of human life. Though challenging for many people, the present circumstances does bring thoughts and questions as to what can be socially, politically, and economically salvaged from the wreckage. In this article, two UK-based scholars focus upon the field of sport and physical activity (S-PA), and discuss how spatial, social and value aspects of S-PA have shifted during this current crisis.    

2021, issue 46, Ana Caetano: I have been studying biographical crises for some years now. My interest is in understanding how people cope with very personal difficult moments experienced over the course of their lives. I am examining critical events and periods connected, for example, to the death of someone close, a disease, accidents, severe economic difficulties, among other traumatic occurrences [1].

2021, issue 46, Lourdes Gaitán: Before launching the consultation, three children were spoken to directly, who advised that it should be somewhat brief and “free style”, that is, that each child should express his- or herself on the subject from any angle and by any means.

2021, issue 46, Marcus Persson: The spread of the Coronavirus Covid-19 has severely affected the elderly population worldwide. Sweden is no exception. When the outbreak first hit the country, the situation at the elderly care facilities changed dramatically within a couple of weeks. On the 4th of March, Swedish Television reports that even if the elderly are identified as a risk group, there are no restrictions regarding visits from family or others.

2021, issue 46, Lena Hipp, Stefan Munnes and Mareike Bünning: The joy of being a researcher is closely related to our discussions and collaborations with others. Most of us do, nonetheless, enjoy working from home every now and then. Having uninterrupted time to concentrate on writing, the freedom to go for a run, or to take a nap so that we can return to some unfinished piece of writing with fresh eyes, the taste of an espresso instead of some mediocre machine coffee – all of these are what typically make working from home enjoyable.

2021, issue 46, Giuliana Mandich, Valentina Cuzzocrea, Caterina Satta: On the 22nd January 2020, a meeting took place in the vibrant city of Naples, between those involved in an Italian Ministry of Education research project: Mapping Youth Futures: Forms of Anticipation and Youth Agency. Many members of the research group have studied temporalities for a long time, and the project had been under evaluation for an extensive period.

2021, issue 46, Matthias Gross: In 1986, after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, sociological observers labelled the accident the “largest thinkable experiment” [1]. They did so since the origin of the accident started during a standard experiment on the nuclear reactor that subsequently went into the wild and became a real world experiment with an unknown outcome.

2021, issue 46, Dennis Eversberg: At first sight, it might not be the most obvious thing to do, to interpret the current societal crisis in terms of ‘socio-ecological mentalities’. Yet, in this short essay, I will briefly introduce some key findings from my analyses using data from a representative German survey to demonstrate that this is indeed highly relevant for understanding the current debates – and impending conflicts – about how to deal with the enormous challenges posed by the virus.

2021, issue 46, David Redmalm: During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, post-industrial countries saw a sudden shortage of toilet paper. Most of the big media outlets published stories on the toilet paper shortage which also tried to explain the sudden surge in toilet paper purchases. Most of them agreed that hoarding paper rolls gives a sense of control in the midst of chaos.

2021, issue 46, Bartholomew A. Konechni: More than eleven million people turned to watch Pope Francis give his exceptional Urbi et Orbi address to a deserted Saint Peter’s Square on the 27th March 2020. Not only was it a remarkable point that the Pope should give such an address, for the Urbi et Orbi is reserved almost exclusively for Easter and Christmas celebrations, but also that Pope Francis should make such a candid recognition of the central problem of theodicy in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.