SUBJECTIVE NARRATIVES OF THE 2020 LOCKDOWN PERIOD AMONG ROMANIAN STUDENTS

Abstract

Objectives. On March 11 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the Covid 19 pandemic. Limiting human contact and mobility during quarantine has raised a number of personal and collective concerns. The objective of the present study is to identify the highly subjective ways in which Romanian students presented personal narratives related to the spring 2020 quarantine. Material and methods. The diary method (Hyers, 2018) was used to collect data for this study. This highly flexible method provided us with a unique opportunity to collect daily data from participants. Between 15 March and 15 April 2020 a total of 10 diaries were collected. The diaries were completed in both traditional format (on paper, subsequently photographed and submitted) and in digital format. Results. The analysis indicated that the majority of subjects experienced the quarantine as a period of personal and collective fear. The same dataset indicated that the quarantine was marked by a subjective dynamic. If at the beginning, in the first two weeks of quarantine, subjects were focused on strictly recording events taking place outside their personal area, later on, the narrative focused on very personal experiences, and the negative changes induced by the situation prevailed. Conclusions. The research raises a number of issues from a methodological perspective related to the limitation of research with human subjects during quarantine. Therefore, the social sciences will need to use more innovative research methods and find new ways of reaching potential participants – especially those with limited access to the internet. Keywords: quarantine, personal diaries, narrative, fear, Romania.