Social Crisis Research Articles

Academic Stress and Satisfaction with the Teaching-Learning Model: The Mediating Role of Social Provisions in Social Work Students

ABSTRACT The social and health crisis provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions in teaching-learning models have had an impact on the academic experience of university students. The object of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect relations existing between perceived academic stress, perceived social provisions, and satisfaction with the new teaching-learning model. The study participants were 619 students of the Faculty of Social Work of Complutense University of Madrid (87.7% female, 12.3% male), mean age 21.24 years. A structural equation model was calculated which confirmed that satisfaction with the teaching-learning model was indirectly related with academic stress through social provisions. The interactive reciprocal relations between academic satisfaction, academic stress, and social provisions are discussed on the basis of the theoretical and empirical evidence available.

Challenges for Formal Organizations Engaging Volunteers During Regular and Crisis Times According to Polish and Italian Volunteer Coordinators

AbstractThe recent crises in Europe impacted the volunteering patterns within formal organizations that provide support in regular and crisis times. In our paper, we investigated how volunteer coordinators from formal entities (public/governmental and non-governmental) perceive (1) the patterns of volunteering engagement (long-term versus episodic) in regular and crisis times, (2) the processes of retaining volunteers during crises; (3) the trust of the community toward various types of organizations during social crises; (4) the role of informal support groups in relation to the tasks of their organization. Between June and October 2023, we performed an online-based study (total N = 55)—in Poland (N = 28) and Italy (N = 27). The survey had multiple-choice and open-ended questions, and the results were analyzed qualitatively using the thematic analysis framework. The findings indicated that volunteer coordinators reckon that long-term and episodic volunteers play crucial and complementary roles in helping organizations achieve their objectives. This implies that organizations should recognize the value of both types of volunteers and consider them essential resources for pursuing organizational goals. The results also suggest that the volunteer retention strategies are worth outlining or revisiting within organizations, and attention should be paid to psychological support. According to coordinators, trust in non-governmental organizations is perceived as crucial in the beneficiaries' decisions about where to seek help. Collaboration with informal groups is advised, given that the goals can be achieved together, mutually using the resources provided by both types of helping entities.

The impact of economic, social and health crises on victims of domestic violence

Aim: The situation of victims of domestic violence and partner abuse becomes even more serious in crisis situations. There have been and are ongoing conflicts in the world, which have been scrutinised by economists, sociologists, criminologists, health professionals and lawyers alike in recent years. The latest related research worldwide provides a lot of important new information that can help prepare for the problem and provide professionally competent answers. Methodology: A selection of research conducted in different parts of the world. Summary reports were prepared to shed light on similarities and differences. Findings: It is clear from the processed literature that the individual forms of violence are connected in crisis situations and pose an even greater danger. Violence at the macro level, such as war, also increases violent conflict at the micro level. The crises caused by the fear of COVID, the lockdown, war conflicts, hunger, and the climate disaster spill over into family homes and make the victims of domestic violence and partner abuse even more vulnerable. Most of the processed materials analyse research born after COVID. The COVID–19 epidemic also provided many lessons regarding the management and prevention of the economic effects of future natural disasters and the associated increased domestic violence. Value: Analyses point to relationships that need further research and evaluation. In the future, macro- and micro-level violence research must be continued, common global results must be aggregated, and complex, global solutions must be developed. International organisations must continue to collect data and provide clear guidelines to public bodies and social organisations for the joint management of macro- and micro-level problems.

Understanding right-wing populists’ anti-abortion politics in Turkey: The symbolic violence of the state

This study investigates how symbolic violence is shaping anti-abortion stances associated with legitimising right-wing populist policies. The prominent questions are as follows: What are the institutional and politico-administrative mechanisms that are impacting anti-abortion politics in terms of material and symbolic violence? How and to what extent does anti-abortion politics influence the interplay between symbolic and material state violence? The study argues that reproduction-centred policies and material and symbolic violence have intensified through anti-abortion politics in the discursive context of the social reproduction crisis in Turkey. It explores the institutional actions and the legitimation mechanisms of anti-abortion policies in relation to the penetration of right-wing populist politics after the authoritarian turn of 2010. This qualitative case study uses critical discourse analysis. It interprets the public speeches of representatives of the government and documentary data concerning the ruling party’s programmes, development plans and relevant legislation. The research provides a gendered perspective on the anti-abortion policies that anchor right-wing populism in terms of the crisis of social reproduction. It also contributes to critical state theory and pre-existing feminist scholarship on right-wing populism.

Play as a phenomenon and metaphor of the park

The article analyses the works of Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga, who identified four distinctive features of play – free participation, creation of one’s own world, limited time of play, and order, as well as the works of French sociologist R. Caillois, who reduced the diversity of play to four types – competition, simulation, chance and vertigo. Creative concepts of parks are studied as an embodiment of alternative reality and integrity of the play in contrast to the experience of social development dissonance, identity crisis and lack of aesthetic harmony. The authors study the characteristics of the context of the play: the correlation between the rational and irrational, the limited material space, the presence of characters and rules, paraphernalia and performance as opposed to everyday life. Examples of realisation of playing practices in parks are given. Actualisation of the play in the modern entertainment industry is considered through the lens of theme parks.

Hope in crisis: revisiting Erich Fromm’s dialectic of transformation

In this article we explore Erich Fromm’s concept of hope within the context of contemporary social and political crises. We formulate two primary objections to his vision of a revolution of hope: the individualistic moralisation of societal problems, and the accusation that hope is persuasive and manipulative. By embedding Fromm’s ideas within a broader dialectical framework and engaging with Walter Benjamin’s thoughts on history, we reinterpret hope as a liminal, transformative state rather than a concrete, prescriptive notion. This reconceptualisation presents hope as a fundamental prerequisite for transformative political practice, emphasising its role in fostering active citizenship and collective social change. Ultimately, we argue for the critical importance of hope in navigating and overcoming the challenges of modernity.

Cultural Politics and Academic Crises in American Campus Fiction – Francine Prose’s Blue Angel and Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons

Abstract The article starts from the implications of a phrase in the first chapter of Philip Roth’s novel The Human Stain, a book that addresses issues of contemporary morality in the closed environment of the American academia: “Everyone knows.” Written in the aftermath of the Clinton-Lewinski scandal, Roth’s novel and the two books this article discusses reveal dual, often deliberately ambiguous depictions of gender and power dynamics in the ecosystem of the American college campus, a space that widens the gap between social structures, which grow more and more granular. The examined novels share concerns about cultural politics, offering a complementary perspective: while Francine Prose’s novel follows the tradition of the campus novel and retells the story from a mature academic’s point of view, Tom Wolfe’s book shifts to a young student’s side of the story. The article aims to demonstrate it is not a mere coincidence that these representative novels about social and moral crises faced on the campus were actually written in a time when campus fiction was also going through an aesthetic crisis. The crises on the campus and the crisis in campus fiction indicate a turning point, where creative solutions can be identified, despite their potential controversy.

“The wrong side of the desk”: Material and Discursive Struggle in Bud Osborn’s Downtown Eastside

Abstract Bud Osborn (1947-2014) was an American poet and activist who arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1986. He landed in Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside (DTES), while struggling with heroin addiction. The DTES is a complex and politically active neighbourhood and site of intersecting social crises. Osborn would spend the remainder of his life capturing this community in his poetry, which is often understood solely through activism for harm reduction and against gentrification. In this article, I engage with his poetry to understand the politics which motivate his activism. This exploration will include a variety of textual mediums, voices, and analytic perspectives to capture the complex politics contained in his words. I believe that by reading his words we can examine his complicated self-positionality as a PWUD (people who use drugs) and a member of the lumpenproletariat who occupied sociocultural spaces that often excluded those from his social standing. This examination shows how he constitutes the DTES as a space of material and discursive struggle. What emerges from this examination is how his poetic resistance at the level of the signifier intertwines with his street-level resistance. That is, how the act of writing and reading poetry can be an act of defiance.

The Rising Cases of Suicide among Nigerians: What Are the Risk Factors, Prevention, and Remedies?

The escalating suicide rate in Nigeria, exacerbated by economic, political, health, and social crises, represents a pressing concern. The aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns has exacerbated this issue, particularly in African nations with bare-bones governmental support systems. This paper examines the underlying causes of the alarming number of suicides in Nigeria, utilizing interviews to explore the risk factors, preventative measures adopted, and crisis interventions. Our findings reveal that spousal conflicts, job loss, and bereavement are significant triggers of suicidal ideation. Recommendations include fostering supportive environments, crisis interventions, and psychological rehabilitation services. Urgent attention is warranted to address this growing trend and mitigate its socioeconomic repercussions in Nigeria.

Navigating the Zeitgeist: An Examination of Language Teachers’ Emotion Labor During Social and Political Crisis

Navigating the Zeitgeist: An Examination of Language Teachers’ Emotion Labor During Social and Political Crisis

The Reforms of the Ruler of Dai Viet Trinh Cuong and Their Negative Consequences

Chua Trinh Cuong, the de facto ruler of Northern Vietnam at the beginning of the 18th century, is considered in historiography to be an active reformer who sought to establish order in Vietnamese society, achieve its stability and sustainable development. All the blame for the subsequent brutal civil wars is usually placed on his successor, Chua Trinh Giang (ruled 1730–1740), who departed from his father's line and stopped dealing with socio-economic issues. The article, based on primary sources, contains a substantive analysis of the reforms carried out by Chinh Cuong, and proves that in essence they became one of the reasons for the large-scale and long-term social crisis in the country in the middle of the 18th century, which almost led to the fall of the Trinh regime.

THEORY OF CONFLICTS-MICROTHEORIES

Every social system has had its conflicts. We have had conflicts over the division of empires based on religious or cultural orientation, for example the Byzantine Empire of the people have split into two denominations, the ruling system shutdown (system of Westphalia) or state of order of Westphalia. From this period, the world begins to be accompanied by state colonization. Conflicts can be regional, global, state, interstate and beyond. The crisis of Europe is more interesting than the other crisis that has entire realistic reforms after the Otto-monopoly bourgeois liberalization. East crisis was external and internal crisis, duplication of the aristocracy of the Ottoman Empire. We have a crisis or conflict of the First World War. The First World War created the system of Versailles. The Versailles system consists of the following problems: 1. The Ottoman Empire dissolved; 2. Formation of new states The cause of the First World War was Germany. - Then there is the crisis of the League of Nations (state problem solving) - Conflict of WWII; (World War II) There are three types of crises: 1. Fascism; 2. Bolshevism; and 3. Liberal Democracy. We are forming allies, and then we had the Cold War conflict. Cold War East-West conflict (ideological, military and economic change). The world is a crisis of the international order. The Russian Federation 20 years recycles apparent internal and external conflicts. Developed countries use the resources of underdeveloped countries. -World of today faces social crisis, where social crisis has no limit. Social crises coming from abuses by big capital capitalism. - The world is open in the technical aspect, technology, internet, information, where these phenomena are the social crises. Conflicts are tensions that carry certain problems of an old order to a new social order. Conflicts in the former Yugoslavia was born as neglecting the national issue (ethnic crisis.)

Sustainable Development Revisited: Rethinking Growth-Centric Paradigms Through the Lens of the Sabbath

This paper argues that the current growth-centric paradigm of sustainable development is fundamentally flawed and proposes a paradigm shift towards the biblical concept of the Sabbath. It critiques the internal contradictions of the SDGs and challenges the unsustainable pursuit of infinite growth in addressing social and ecological crises. By exploring Sabbath's principles of rest, recalibration, and redistribution, the paper offers an ethical foundation for self-limitation and a basis for human identity beyond productivity—addressing the shortcomings of the degrowth movement. It proposes practical applications of Sabbath principles at individual, community, and structural levels, drawing upon empirical examples to demonstrate their potential as pathways to environmental justice. These multi-level applications aim to bridge the gap between the intentions of international agreements and impactful local action. The paper concludes that Sabbath presents a transformative vision for sustainable development and environmental justice, fostering a harmonious relationship between humanity and the planet. Keywords: Sustainability, Development, Sabbath, Degrowth, Capitalism, Environmental Justice, Poverty, Well-being, Ethics, Religion.

COVID-19’S IMPACT ON FOOD STALL WORKERS: NIGHT MARKETS’ RESILIENCE IN PENANG, MALAYSIA

The COVID-19 pandemic has left an enduring mark on Southeast Asia, with lasting repercussions on financial markets, employment, and gender equality in the workplace. Various activities were halted in order to curb the virus’s spread, which dealt a severe blow to Malaysia’s thriving economy. The informal sector, a cornerstone of the Asia-Pacific service industry, felt these effects acutely, as it heavily relies on informal workers. Given that more than three quarters of Malaysia’s service sector comprises informal workers, the country’s economic recovery is now significantly reliant on this workforce. Considering the contribution of the informal sector to Malaysia’s food market, this study aims to explore the impact of social shocks and economic crises on the resilience of informal workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a multistage probability sampling method, the study employed a questionnaire survey involving Penang’s food stalls in night markets. Findings reveal significant variations in workers’ lifestyles, attitudes, and family dynamics. Gender-related factors also exert a substantial influence on their behavior, attitudes, and engagement levels. While many studies have examined night markets as tourism spots in terms of how to increase sales or attract visitors, this study is among the first to focus on the vendors themselves, exploring the impact of COVID-19 on food stalls as an unseen vulnerable community.

Homelessness: A Health and Social Crisis.

Homelessness: A Health and Social Crisis.

Interrogating Christian and Muslim responses to COVID-19 in Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the far-reaching significance of religion in shaping human interaction within social crises. Efforts to slow down the spread of coronavirus prompted different national governments, including the Federal Government of Nigeria to restrict large density gatherings, enforce lockdowns and promote social distancing, which were largely resisted initially. Organised religion may have influenced citizens’ compliance with government directives for curbing the pandemic. Focussing largely on providing economic assistance to people in need, it may have missed out on the reason for recourse to faith. One outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic was the need to understand the application of religious faith in explaining epidemics and health crises. This work predominantly relies on data from secondary sources (library research and internet materials). Just as it critically investigates Christian-Muslim responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seeks also to justify reliance on religion during a health emergency. By the evaluative method of philosophy, we show that although the pandemic triggered dread of annihilation, it brought in its wake a search for ontological meaningfulness. This study therefore argues that Nigerians turned to religion to meet the deep-seated, individual need for meaningfulness (‘survivability’) that is primary to the need of soul and body, which includes material donations by organised religious entities. The primacy of fulfilling this need precedes sociality both ontologically and epistemologically because meaningfulness is an inalienable property of individuality.Contribution: This work presents religion as a rationally defensible need that is fundamentally rooted in individual human nature, even in a pandemic; religion pertains to meaningfulness, which counters human fear of annihilation and meaninglessness.

The active, the sympathetic, and the reluctant: political action and eco-social attitudes among Swedish residents

Abstract In this study, we investigate how eco-social attitudes are interlinked with various modes of political action aimed at preventing environmental change and promoting social welfare. Using multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis, we explore the links between attitudes and political action, and associated socio-political characteristics, in the case of Sweden. Our results show a three-node pattern forming a political action triangle: individuals expressing joint support for social welfare and environmental concerns are most actively engaged in political action, while those supporting environmental concerns are sympathetic to take part in political action without actually participating, and those supporting social welfare or expressing low support for either set of concerns seem overly reluctant towards all types of political action. This pattern, which is also tied to distinctive socio-political characteristics, has wider implications for understanding the agency and the mobilization of support for tackling the multiple ecological and social crises contemporary societies are facing.

Making sense of social enterprises' crisis preparedness and development of composite index for its assessment

AbstractSocial enterprises are organizations that make society more resilient, but at the same time they have their own vulnerabilities and are threatened by a number of factors that can throw them into a crisis. Nevertheless, a crisis in social enterprises and their crisis preparedness are not topics that the literature adequately deals with. The aim of this mixed method research is to identify how social entrepreneurs make sense of crisis preparedness, and how to measure it. The qualitative part of the research shows that there are five key themes that are perceived by social entrepreneurs when it comes to crisis preparedness in the context of social enterprises' specifics: Crisis preparedness as a prevention against mission drift, as a necessity when working with disadvantaged employees, as a path toward greater financial stability, as a “helper” in a changing legislative environment, and as a response to a fragile organizational structure. Combining these findings with the literature review, composite Perceived Threats Index (PTI) and Crisis Preparedness Index (CPI) are constructed. Using correlation and regression analysis and hypothesis testing, we validate them and confirm relationship between geographical scope of social enteprises and crisis preparedness as well as between latter and perceived threats.

From Elitism to Civilianization: The Mobilization of "Civilian Hero Narratives" in Public Crises

Initiating large-scale social mobilization in public crisis management is a unique advantage and an effective means for the state to prevent and resolve major risks, but due to the extreme lack of cases of positive social mobilization in crises, the mechanism of achieving effective social mobilization is not clear, and there is an urgent need for the theoretical and practical communities to summarize empirical experiences of achieving positive social mobilization in crisis management. Based on this, through the empirical analysis of the rescue cases of Chongqing mountain fire, we find that the media's "civilian hero" narrative in crisis management breaks the rigid pattern of "hero deification" and "elite propaganda" in traditional disaster reports, and is based on the "civilian hero" character narrative, "emotional mobilization" narrative theme and "individual presentation" perspective strategy, which is able to construct a public crisis "heroism" faith consensus, social mobilization resonance and common action. The media's "civilian hero" narrative has become a precise fulcrum for prying the lever of social mobilization, providing a new path for modern social crisis management.

Experiencing Meaningful Work through Corporate Volunteering: The Other as a Source of Meaning

AbstractGlobal social, ecological and economic crises are contributing to the need for meaningfulness in different spheres of life, including work, as an increasing concern to employees. However, the current understanding of meaningfulness is bound by its normativity and thus does not meet the uncertainty present in today’s work. We utilize the Levinasian concept of “the Other” to provide a non-normative conceptualization of meaningfulness in the context of corporate volunteering (CV) and empirically explore work meaningfulness in CV projects in Poland and Finland. We find work meaningfulness to arise from proximity to the Other and the otherness of the Other. Our study contributes to the discussion on meaningful work in the fields of business ethics and management studies through a non-normative reconceptualization of meaningfulness.