Narratives of the Virocene: a visual ethnography with basis on the film Contagion

Over the recent years, some authors have questioned the hegemony of mankind (Anthropocene) over nature. The recent virus outbreak known as COVID19 starts a new period known as "violence" where humans are forced to recede to the private sphere. The COVID19 pandemic not only alerted the health authorities but also disposed of extreme measures which included the close of borders, airspaces, as well as the imposition of lockdown and social distancing. Not only global commerce but also the tourism industry was placed on the brink of collapse. In this grim landscape, the problem of climate change is far from being solved. While steps to reverse the greenhouse gas emission should be taken globally coordinating efforts among nations, the current climate of tension without mentioning the geopolitical discrepancies (among countries) impedes the formation of global sustainable institutions to monitor and regulate the effects of climate change. The present article centers on a visual ethnography on the film Contagion, to lay the foundations towards a new understanding of ideology and its effects on ecological justice.

Who do we trust? Differences in types of trust and beliefs in conspiracy theories between vaccinated and unvaccinated Europeans across 17 European countries

A plethora of research has highlighted that trust in science, political trust, and conspiracy theories are all important contributors to vaccine uptake behavior. In the current investigation, relying on data from 17 countries (N = 30,096) from the European Social Survey we examined how those who received (and wanted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine) compared to those who did not differ in their trust in: science, politicians and political parties, international organizations and towards people in general. We also examined whether they differed in how much they believed in conspiracy theories. Those who received (or wanted to receive) the COVID vaccine scored significantly higher in all forms of trust, and lower in conspiracy theory beliefs. A logistic regression suggested that trust in science, politicians, international organizations, as well as belief in conspiracy theories were significant predictors, even after accounting for key demographic characteristics.

China's Vision for a Future World Order and Its Implications for Global Governance

This analytical essay addresses authoritarian communitarianism as the normative and ideological underpinnings of the current Chinese foreign policy. In recent years, China has exhibited its ambition in bidding for its preferred world order, through both its rhetoric and behavior. Being well aware of this new development, people are debating about what is exactly China's world vision and its approach to a future world order. Driven by the puzzle in contemporary global affairs, this chapter focuses on the philosophical and ideological roots of China's world vision, rather than investigating its foreign policies directly. It is argued that China's world view today and its ensuing policy approach are substantially informed by the authoritarian version of communitarianism, deriving largely from the traditional Chinese thoughts of Confucianism. Inspired by authoritarian communitarianism as the main international ideology, China is envisaging a world order, based on values of international stability and communal harmony, emphasizing the role of nation states and vertical hierarchical order. This argument is further assessed with China's role and policy in the crisis of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. Through this specific case, strength and limitation of China's world vision are better illuminated, with reference to global governance. It is concluded that the ideological struggle between China and mostly the West tends to generate substantial policy implications in contemporary global affairs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Holy Communion in Greek Orthodoxy in the Time of Coronavirus: Ideological Perspectives in Conflict

This article examines the controversy over the mode of distribution of Holy Communion that surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on debates that took place in the Greek Orthodox community. After describing and evaluating the role of secular and religious experts in the context of the pandemic, the paper analyzes three main perspectives on the issue of the Eucharist: (1) the secularist-rationalist viewpoint;(2) the religious–traditionalist outlook;and (3) the "Third Way” perspective. The paper argues that the Church's Holy Communion controversy is indicative of a deeper struggle between religious and secular thinkers and among various voices in the Greek Orthodox Church concerning the latter's place in, and influence over, the modern secular socio-political order. © 2023 by the author.

Paranormal Beliefs, Vaccine Confidence, and COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake

Conservative religious ideologies have been linked to vaccine hesitancy. Yet, little is known about how paranormal beliefs relate to vaccine confidence and uptake. We hypothesize that paranormal beliefs will be negatively related to both confidence and uptake due to their association with lower levels of trust in science and a greater acceptance of conspiratorial beliefs. We test this hypothesis using a new nationally representative sample of U.S. adults fielded in May and June of 2021 by NORC. Using regression models with a sample of 1,734, we find that paranormal beliefs are negatively associated with general vaccine confidence, COVID-19 vaccine confidence, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. These associations are partially or fully attenuated net of trust in science and conspiratorial belief. Although not a focus of the study, we also find that Christian nationalism's negative association with the outcomes is fully accounted for by measures of trust in science and conspiratorial beliefs. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Sociology of Religion is the property of Oxford University Press / USA 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 Representation of the First COVID-19 Case in Jordan in News Outlets: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study

During pandemics, health discourse cannot be separated from media discourse, which usually exercises its power to deliver particular ideological and political perspectives through the content it presents. This study aimed to investigate the coverage of the first case of COVID-19 in Jordan in local and nonlocal Arabic news outlets. It shed light on the potential ideologies reflected in the news headlines and articles. To achieve the objectives of the study, eight local and fourteen nonlocal news articles tackling the first case of COVID-19 in Jordan on the 2nd and 3rd of March 2020 were collected and analyzed in light of Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach. The results showed that the nonlocal news headlines and articles included words with negative connotations that may create resentment and spread panic among citizens. On the other hand, in local news outlets, reassuring phrases were used by focusing on the government's procedures and distancing Jordan from the country where the virus widely spread, namely, Italy.

Disruptions to in-person medical visits across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic: evolving disparities by medical specialty and socio-economic status.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate how people's health-seeking behaviors evolve in the COVID-19 pandemic by community and medical service category. STUDY DESIGN: This is a longitudinal study using mobility data from 19 million mobile devices of visits to all types of health facility locations for all US states. METHODS: We examine the variations in weekly in-person medical visits across county, neighborhood, and specialty levels. Different regression models are used for each level to investigate factors that influence the disparities in medical visits. County-level analysis explores associations between county medical visit patterns, political orientation, and COVID-19 infection rate. Neighborhood-level analysis focuses on neighborhood socio-economic compositions as potential determinants of medical visit levels. Specialty-level analysis compares the evolution of visit disruptions in different specialties. RESULTS: A more left-leaning political orientation and a higher local infection rate were associated with larger decreases in in-person medical visits, and these associations became stronger, moving from the initial period of stay-at-home orders into the post-lockdown period. Initial reactions were strongest for seniors and those of high socio-economic status, but this reversed in post-lockdown period where socio-economically disadvantaged communities stabilized at a lower level of medical visits. Neighborhoods with more female and young people exhibited larger decreases in in-person medical visits throughout the initial and post-lockdown periods. The evolution of disruptions diverges across medical specialties, from only short-term disruption in specialties such as dentistry to increasing disruption, as in cardiology. CONCLUSIONS: Given distinct patterns in visit between communities, medical service categories, and between different periods in the pandemic, policy makers, and providers should concentrate on monitoring patients in disrupted specialties who overlap with the at-risk contexts and socio-economic factors in future health emergencies.

Blaming the unvaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of political ideology and risk perceptions in the USA.

Individuals unvaccinated against COVID-19 (C19) experienced prejudice and blame for the pandemic. Because people vastly overestimate C19 risks, we examined whether these negative judgements could be partially understood as a form of scapegoating (ie, blaming a group unfairly for an undesirable outcome) and whether political ideology (previously shown to shape risk perceptions in the USA) moderates scapegoating of the unvaccinated. We grounded our analyses in scapegoating literature and risk perception during C19. We obtained support for our speculations through two vignette-based studies conducted in the USA in early 2022. We varied the risk profiles (age, prior infection, comorbidities) and vaccination statuses of vignette characters (eg, vaccinated, vaccinated without recent boosters, unvaccinated, unvaccinated-recovered), while keeping all other information constant. We observed that people hold the unvaccinated (vs vaccinated) more responsible for negative pandemic outcomes and that political ideology moderated these effects: liberals (vs conservatives) were more likely to scapegoat the unvaccinated (vs vaccinated), even when presented with information challenging the culpability of the unvaccinated known at the time of data collection (eg, natural immunity, availability of vaccines, time since last vaccination). These findings support a scapegoating explanation for a specific group-based prejudice that emerged during the C19 pandemic. We encourage medical ethicists to examine the negative consequences of significant C19 risk overestimation among the public. The public needs accurate information about health issues. That may involve combating misinformation that overestimates and underestimates disease risk with similar vigilance to error.

"I've Got More of a Role to Play": Australian Fathers' Perspectives on Parenting Through the Lens of COVID-19 Lockdown

Using interviews with 15 Australian fathers, we explored the impact of having spent time in COVID-19 lockdown on men's views of their relationship with their children and family-work life balance. All interviewees were married to women and living with their children, most were employed and working full-time. Three themes were identified from the interviews: an ongoing desire to be present as a father, benefits to being present through COVID-19 lockdowns for self as a father and for the children, and conflicting pressures from workplaces and at home which were barriers to being present. Survey data 1 year later revealed that many of these fathers had shifted their work patterns because of their lockdown experience. Shifts in workplace culture and behavior were identified as supporting flexible working arrangements. Despite the immediate challenges of lockdown, it provided the opportunity for some fathers to reevaluate their priorities resulting in long-term changes in working patterns.

COVID-19, the Stay-Home Discourse, and a New Geographic Haven

Because of the deleterious nature of the COVID-19 virus and its fast-spreading, the world had to make an urgent migration to online space. This transfer was achieved by way of a complex collaboration between home as space and the internet as cyberspace and was encouraged by the discourse of "stay home.” Using cyberspace to do daily tasks, while staying at home, has been compensation for the now still resisted face-to-face interaction;the latter, depending on the context, is often only allowed when keeping one's distance or when remotely connecting with others from home. Although "stay home” has been seen as the solution during this pandemic for world events to run their course, it poses a great many problems of ideological order. This chapter offers a critique of the stay-home discourse and unearths some of its concealed ideologies. One of its aims is to denounce as a myth the highly enthusiastic positivity that has become dogmatically associated with it. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Healthy citizens, healthy democracies? A review of the literature

A growing literature over the past 10 years on health and political behavior has established health status as an important source of political inequality. Poor health reduces psychological engagement with politics and discourages political activity. This lowers incentives for governments to respond to the needs of those experiencing ill health and thereby perpetuates health disparities. In this review article, we provide a critical synthesis of the state of knowledge on the links between different aspects of health and political behavior. We also discuss the challenges confronting this research agenda, particularly with respect to measurement, theory, and establishing causality, along with suggestions for advancing the field. With the COVID-19 pandemic casting health disparities into sharp focus, understanding the sources of health biases in the political process, as well as their implications, is an important task that can bring us closer to the ideals of inclusive democracy.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Microstructure of Covid-19 Health-Protocol Advertisements in Tourist Facilities

To alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism, tourist facilities in Bali are informing visitors of the relevant health protocols, using posters to describe the appropriate behaviours. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines the microstructure of the texts in these posters to identify their semantic, syntactic, lexical, and rhetorical elements. The study findings show that the semantic aspects consist of background, intention, and detail. The syntactic elements involve coherence and the use of the pronouns 'you' and 'we', and of the imperative, and the declarative. The lexical aspects include abbreviations and vocabulary, related to the health protocol. The textual messages are delivered in official language, supported by pictures and photographs.

The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of cases and over half a million deaths in the United States. While health experts urge citizens to adopt preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask, these recommended behaviors are not always followed by the public. To find a way to promote preventative measures, the present study examined the role of gain-loss framing of COVID-19 related messages on social distancing and mask wearing compliance. Moreover, the study also tested potential moderating effects on framing with three individual characteristics: political ideology, subjective numeracy, and risk attitude. A sample of 375 U.S. adult residents were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Each participant read either a gain or loss-framed message related to practicing protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants also completed scales of preventative behaviors, risk attitude, subjective numeracy, political ideology, and other demographic variables. It was found that those who were more liberal, risk-averse and had greater subjective numeracy were more likely to wear a mask and/or follow social distancing. Furthermore, in the presence of demographic and psychological factors, the study found participants in the loss-framed condition than in the gain-framed condition were more likely to adopt both preventative measures, supporting the notion of loss aversion. Additionally, the framing effect was also moderated by political ideology on mask-wearing, with the effect being stronger in liberals than in conservatives. Collectively, the study implies message framing may be a useful means to promote preventative measures in the current pandemic.

Who wears the face mask? Preventive measures against COVID-19 in Latin America before vaccination.

OBJECTIVES: We analyze the profile of adults who used a mask in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, between October and November 2020, right before the mass vaccination campaigns. STUDY DESIGN: Based on the Latinobarometer 2020 data, we assess the individual, regional, cultural and political factors of people who used a mask in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 18 countries of Latin America. METHODS: We applied a logistic regression to model the probability of using the mask regularly to avoid being infected with the COVID-19 virus. RESULTS: Women, older people, those with higher education, those being employed and not working in temporarily jobs, retirees, students, people with a centrist political ideology, and Catholics had a higher chance of using a face mask on a regular basis. People living in Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica and Brazil were the most likely to use face masks. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the need to understand the social forces behind the willingness to adopt non-pharmacological preventive measures to make them more effective in health crisis emergencies.

Shaping political orientations: testing the effect of unemployment on ideological beliefs and voting behaviour

Using data from the European Social Survey we test whether a period of unemployment in Ireland shapes individuals' core political ideological beliefs towards the left of the political spectrum and whether the experience of unemployment prompts people to vote for left-leaning parties. Results indicate that unemployment is linked with more leftward core political ideological beliefs and is associated with a tendency to vote for left-leaning parties. A central implication of our findings is that the sizeable increase in the extent of unemployment, as a consequence of the restrictions due to the COVID pandemic, may well have fundamental political ramifications influencing the political ideology and values of an unprecedented number of people. Right and centre-right parties in order to remain popular in recent times have tended to shift their policies leftward. The potential implications of the high unemployment during the recent pandemic may reinforce this trend. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Irish Political Studies 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.)

Pandemic, ignorance and avoidable suffering

COVID-19 pandemics gave us relevant lessons that are going to leave a durable mark in our individual and collective experience. Those lessons are both practical and endowed with a moral import. But the pandemic has left a trail of experiences poorly elaborated that leads, with some urgency, to forced silence and to the cancellation of emotional trauma. The aim of this paper was to disentangle the complex relationship that arises, under conditions of uncertainty, between knowledge and ignorance, both from the perspective of experts and of policy makers, and even of the ordinary people, struck or not by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To that end, I distinguish between three different levels of analysis (agency, institutions, and ideological frameworks) so to argue that the mismatches that occur in all of them, and between them, are sources of avoidable harm. The purpose of this exploration was, therefore, to bring to the floor, relying on the conceptual tools of the political epistemology, both the aspects of the traumatic experience that still lack an adequate elaboration and the features that provide an improved resilience for individuals and societies in tackling with the frightful consequences of the pandemic.

The Ideological Slant of COVID-19-Related Conspiracies. A New Niche for the Far-Right?

What makes believers in COVID-19-related conspiratorial stories different from the usual conspiracy theorists? To date, evidence on conspiratorial beliefs about COVID-19 is scant and it focuses on only a few countries. Moreover, it overlooks political and ideological factors, which might well help in the endeavour of halting misperceptions about the pandemic and understanding their political consequences. This research note examines the role of these explanatory factors (placement on the left-right scale, authoritarianism, freedom, and support for the incumbent party) in relation to conspiracy theories in general and COVID-19-related conspiratorial beliefs in particular. To do so, it uses a new case study: Spain. Relying on a large online survey (N = 3760), we find that right-wing individuals are more prone to embrace COVID-19-specific than general conspiracies. We also find that people that value security over freedom are more prone to falling for pandemic misbeliefs. Those holding more general conspiratorial beliefs stand out for their defence of freedom above anything else, as well as for their rebellion against authority, including the ruling party. This suggests that the pandemic has roused a new sort of conspiratorial believer: a conservative niche that might become attractive to emerging far-right parties. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Representation 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 USE OF METAPHOR IN DEFINING THE PANDEMIC PHENOMENON

Although pandemics are perceived as scientific and technical problems, their multi-layered political implications trigger an ideologyladen debate. In this paper, we argue that in the face of the upheavals caused by Covid-19, a considerable part of the political and media systems has used narratives rooted in neo-nationalist and neo-liberal ideologies. On the one hand, neo-nationalism is visible through the portrayal of stereotypical « others » in mainstream media. On the other hand, the health emergency has tested and will continue to test institutions and their ability to find and implement solutions that minimise harm without restricting individual freedoms. Those entrusted with the institutional and political responsibility to inform the public once again communicated on the event using the primal rhetorical figures. First in China, then in Italy and Europe, and finally throughout the world, politicians, journalists, doctors, economists and opinion leaders have defined the health emergency as "war". The metaphor of war has been used and abused from the beginning, and the first and most vocal disseminators of the term « war » and its associated concepts have been politicians. This paper proposes an extension of the concept of Orientalism as a possible key to understanding the construction of stereotypical representations of Covid-19 as the 'enemy' and the pandemic as 'war' during the lockdown. Furthermore, it is argued that political positions and conflicts over pandemic measures are not random and nor do they depend on the idiosyncrasy of individuals. Rather, they represent certain material interests and socio-cultural and ideological backgrounds.

Global Classics

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SPEAK of "global Classics” in the "post-COVID era?” Reaching the post-COVID period may have eluded us, but the notion of a global Classics—Classics as it is received outside the West—has been a topic of serious interest in the field over the past decade, even in advance of the new opportunities for conferences and conversations across time zones made possible by Zoom and the virtual office.1 Paradoxically enough, the question of how to read—and interpret—the texts of the Classical tradition in a globalized world arises just as the field is facing critique from within, as texts once standard in university curricula are condemned for their historical use in the service of empire, expansion, ideology, and propping up hierarchies of class, race, and gender. At a 2019 conference on "Classics and Global Humanities” at the University of Ghana,2 (non-globalized) Classics' involvement in the ideologies of colonialism was openly acknowledged, but new frameworks were also suggested within which these texts could speak to topics relevant to the present, spurring readers to discuss such subjects as academic freedom and politics, race in the canon, citizenship and migration, globalization and education, and more.3 As Erin Mee (2010: 314) puts it in her review essay of Classics in Post-colonial Worlds and Crossroads in the Black Aegean: Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora, "What better way to challenge colonialism (either before, during, or after the ‘official' period of colonization) than by using the very tools that colonial powers used to justify their cultural superiority and therefore their dominance?”4 Other voices agree: Here, then, "global Classics” strives to be truly global by cutting across social and economic status in its search for representative texts—representative, perhaps, of "the human condition,” to the extent that is possible. Unfortunately, the Yale-NUS liberal arts college (and its vibrant international student body with it) has just been shut down by policy makers at NUS: the challenges of teaching a broad-ranging core in a country without complete freedom of speech apparently proved to be too much.11 Here politics confronts the habits of mind of the liberal self, which is often prompted by the classical texts of any culture to ask questions about human beings' relationship to themselves and their society that do not mesh well with nationalism, autocracy, or the control of propaganda.