Starting from March 28, 2020 our journals launched a series of special calls for papers related to coronavirus disease.
The collection includes contributions published in regular issues, as well as articles currently in Press, awaiting publication in the upcoming Journals issues. All articles, including Articles in Press, have undergone the peer review process.
All these articles are freely accessible.
(links updated on April 13, 2021)
The following list includes published & In Press articles across all Humanities disciplines related to Covid-19.
Aisthesis Journal
The Optical House of Tactile: The Bricolage-Like Response to COVID-19
Marco Innocenti, Italy
This paper aims to analyse how COVID-19 pandemic is changing our perception of reality. It starts looking at our situation from the point of view of Riegl’s distinction between optical and tactile, and then it compares the nature of the relationship between these two approaches to Lévi-Strauss’s description of bricolage. Our current world-view turns out to be not only an optic one, because the optical approach is just the means by which we can articulate a private and social life messed up by Coronavirus. Thereby, optical takes care of tactile without replacing it, and this article draws parallels between this aspect and language as described by Heidegger. Finally, after having argued the presence of an aura in this “optical house of tactile” in both Walter Benjamin’s and Hito Steyerl’s forms, this article tries to figure out how this perspective could last beyond the end of this emergency.
Accepted on 2020, 28 December| Aisthesis. DOI: 10.13128/Aisthesis-12104 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Cuarentenas del sur
Ana de Anquín, Universidad Nacional de Salta, Argentina
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12296 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Greece in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Greece
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12296 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
The Rights of the Child forgotten in Italy’s coronavirus emergency
The coronavirus emergency radically changes our habits and way of life, and clearly highlight the inadequacy of our decision-making apparatus and the latent injustices in society. The paper focuses on the failure consideration of the needs and rights of the Child in the urgent decrees implemented by the Italian Government and by the most affected Regions of the peninsula. In a general context in which the perception of the danger activates regressive mechanisms at a social level (such as the search for the scapegoat and the polarization of the behaviours of the citizens), one would expect that the ruling classes maintain rationality and foresight in management of the crisis. Moreover, a scarce “widespread pedagogical culture” which generated the complete removal of the child and educational issue from the political agenda and from public discourse up to the present day. The question of the relationship between education and democracy and the education as a community task must be reconsider as a prior topic for our society, as John Dewey taught.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12298 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Europe, epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Democracy and the Therapeutic State
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The paper discusses the measures that have been taken by the European governments in front of the COVID-19 epidemics, raising the issues of the fundamental liberties and the state of law in front of a dominating right to health. Exploring the differences among the lockdown measures – more draconian – Chinese style – as Italy or Spain – or softer as Germany and Northern European countries, the article considers as well the positions of philosophers as Giorgio Agamben or Bernard-Henri Lévy, and jurists, constitutionalists, lawyers. The already ancient debate about medical power in society is also evoked (Thomas Szasz). Finally, the Swedish model is evoked, together with the reactions against lockdowns by the populations, indicating that the draconian lockdown – given the damages inflicted to economy and social life – won’t be a model to follow in the future, while more balanced forms of control of the epidemic (more testing, isolation of the clusters, better reception services in the hospital) will represent the democratic answer to the challenge.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12299 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
The crisis of liberal democracies and the need for a new “social contract” in the post-Covid 19 era
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This article analyses the crisis of liberal democracies, coming before the Covid 19 era but worsened with this virus emergency. The main argument of the article is that this public health threat amplified problems that Western liberal democracies already had, at different levels and with different actors, and that our democracies need a new social contract in order to rebirth. The article starts analysing the concept of “State of exception”, from Italian philosopher Agamben, then speaks briefly about the democratic erosion during this time in order to explain the reason for a new social contract for a Western liberal democratic rebirth. The second part analyses ten issues, ten P-roblems (all starting with P letter) affecting modern Western liberal democracies, in particular: Poverty, Partitocracy, Populism, Polarization, Post-fact/post-truth informational society, Post-secular/Post-ideological world, Power erosion (of democratic nation states), Political illegitimacy (of the West), and Planetary identity crisis. With Pandemics another P-roblem will be added. The virus crisis could be used as a tipping point for the adaptation of Western liberal democracies to post-modernity and globalized world, not only for their survival but for the survival of the species.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12300 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Geopolítica de la Infodemia y Escenarios Covid-19
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The emergence of the new coronavirus and the subsequent pandemic that became Covid-19 was accompanied by infodemia: this is the overexposure to information to which we have been exposed in an atmosphere of worry, stress, anxiety and distress. This phenomenon has generated nothing more than disinformation, behind which a certain intentionality can be discerned. The following paper presents the development of the communication scenarios surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of International Relations. In this sense, an approach to what we might call the Geopolitics of Infodemics, closely related to the Geopolitics of Technology, is presented. When it comes to managing the crisis, basically two models have been identified: the Asian and the Western. A whole series of issues revolve around these that are not related to the pandemic and which will undoubtedly set trends in the complex web of Communication-Politics-International Relations.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12301 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Macondo en época de Covid-19. ¿Hasta cuándo la resiliencia colombiana?
This article analyzes the Colombian pandemic context during Covid-19 health emergency. Initially, we describe the different lockdown policies adopted by the main governments of Latin America and the Caribbean. Successively, we evidence the contradictions between the constitutional fundamental principles and the current health system. This situation reveals the inequitable national tax regime and the timid economic initiatives that the Government is taking to contain the emergency. Finally, we highlight the evident threats to the peace process given especially by the increase in the assassinations of social leaders and ex-combatants. This situation is accompanied by the growing of legal and illegal pressure that neo-extra-activist interest groups are perpetrating against indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12302 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Bolivia en la encrucijada de la COVID 19
In November 2019, a civilian-military-police coup d’état interrupted the Process of Change led by Evo Morales Ayma in the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The self-proclamation of Jeanine Añez as president of the country ushered in a dark period in Bolivian history characterised by instability and political persecution. The new cabinet has been dismantling the social achievements of the previous administration, plunging the country into a scenario of uncertainty. In this context, Bolivia faces the challenge of the arrival of COVID 19. In this article we will analyse the coup government’s poor handling of the pandemic as well as the real electioneering background of the measures taken by President candidate Jeanine Añez.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12303 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Covid 19 en Oaxaca: respuestas etnoculturales ante la crisis sanitaria
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12304 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Porvenir: Entre el miedo, la insensibilidad y el compromiso con el futuro
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La alta y rápida propagación del SARS-CoV-2 no limita su huella a la pérdida de vidas humanas, las alarmantes cifras de infectados o el colapso de los sistemas sanitarios, sino que pone al descubierto la gestión de sistemas de gobierno competentes, otros ineficientes, economías agrietadas o casi devastadas ante el aumento de la deuda internacional. A nivel social, se acentúan las desigualdades sobre todo para quienes no tienen un trabajo fijo, son emigrantes, o sus contratos han sido cancelados por la cuarentena social. En el presente análisis se toma a Cuba como referencia por llevar a cabo una política gubernamental que prioriza el acceso gratuito a la atención médica, las pesquisas activas para detectar infectados y aislarlos, a la vez que potencia la elaboración en instituciones biotecnológicas experimentadas de una serie de medicamentos que, como parte de la política preventiva del país, son suministrados a la población y a los grupos de riesgo para fortalecer su sistema inmunitario.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12305 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
África subsahariana y el Covid-19: escenarios más probables
En los últimos años la región africana se había caracterizado por indicadores macroeconómicos alentadores como resultado de un crecimiento casi sostenido de sus principales economías, aunque este no ha significado una reducción de las desigualdades. En este contexto tras la adopción de políticas neoliberales los sistemas de salud fueron los más afectados, con la disminución de la capacidad hospitalaria y la carencia de personal médico. La irrupción del coronavirus ha hecho saltar las alarmas de la OMS debido a que África tiene todas las condiciones para convertirse en un futuro epicentro de la pandemia debido a las condiciones higiénico sanitarias. Existe una multiplicidad de factores de riesgo que potencian la expansión de la Covid-19 en África. Esto apunta a un escenario probable de que la pandemia aquí pueda alcanzar proporciones alarmantes con fuertes consecuencias sociales y económicas, agudizadas también por la recesión económica mundial.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12307 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Después de la pandemia: Claves para una transición
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted many countries to adopt drastic and draconian measures. This article attempts to answer a question: is it at all desirable to return to the status quo ante once most economic activities fully resume? I propose here to reconnect the ‘debatable’ with the ‘debated’, that is, what was discussed in some sectors until the day before the pandemic erupted: The climate marches of September 2019 mobilized millions of people throughout the world and already contained national and international renaissance programs aimed at abandoning fossil fuels for a realistically sustainable development. Considering that the pandemic was caused by environmental factors, in addition to the mobility of elites, this raises the urgency of accelerating the energy, economic and cultural transition necessary to slow down ongoing climate change, the consequences of which can be immensely more devastating than any pandemic.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12308 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Vincerò
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La crise sanitaire actuelle nous porte à reconsidérer la situation de nos territoires, et de certains petits territoires insulaires enfermés dans la dépendance économique à l’égard de l’extérieur, notamment. Aussi, le cas de la Corse est-il particulier sans l’être. Car il s’agit pour nous tous de reconstruire des bases de vie acceptables à partir de la mémoire des lieux et pour les gens du lieu. Et en se situant à l’échelle locale, faire de la valorisation des ressources naturelles une priorité. C’est de l’idée d’autosuffisance non seulement alimentaire, de résilience, qu’émergeront peut-être de nouvelles manières d’être et de vivre, au cœur même de notre civilisation méditerranéenne.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12310 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
Fake communication, immaginari contrastanti, una possibile soluzione
Un confronto entre escenarios distintos en tiempos de guerra, de la guerra al terror a la guerra al enemigo invisible. El tiempo pasa, el medio ambiente cambia, pero la estrategias de poder transmitidas a través de la comunicación son las mismas. ¿Cuáles son? ¿y qué imaginarios transmiten ya desde siglos? Esta es la pregunta a la cual tenemos que contestar para poder entender las dinámicas a la base de la construcción de nuestro imaginario cotidiano, extra-ordinario, y ahora pandémico. Nuesto análisis identifica las semejanzas en la comunicación del otro, el enemigo, el extraño, que se han mantenido y todavía se mantienen en los varios ámbitos, académico, cultural y público. Dinámicas que concurren a mantener inalterado el poder en el tiempo y que si identificadas en un lapso de tiempo tan complejo, pueden serivr a manifestar claras disparidades y diferencias entre la gestión del poder y las emergencias en el Norte y Sur del mundo, y poder desarrollar una conciencia crítica. El problema existe, pero cómo se comunica?
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12312 | full text
Comparative Cultural Studies-European and Latin American Perspectives
El nuevo presidente electo de la República Dominicana. Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona. La política del cambio entre desafíos internos y política exterior
Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona is the new President of the Dominican Republic, recently elected, last July 2020. In this Short Note, we refer about his electoral triumph, in the first round, the Presidential Oath and Abinader’s first Presidential Speech. Core axis of domestic and foreign politics were outlined. The new President of the Dominican Republic also acknowledged the fundamental role, played by the Dominican overseas community. In President Abinader’s new approach, it can be observed a breakdown politics, in comparison to previous governments. At the same time, new challenges seem to arise, in foreign political strategy and in regional cooperation with the other Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Published Online: 2020-12-04 | DOI: 10.13128/ccselap-12313 | full text
Cromohs Journal
Lazarets Never Aimed to Stop Circulations
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The history of lazarets lies at the crossroads between the history of circulations and that of pandemics. Initially built to isolate and treat plague patients, they were then closely associated with the economic development of the early modern European states, and ensured the development of safe circulation in the Mediterranean and Central Europe. Here, through the example of the lazaret of Trieste, we can also understand that a lazaret was a micropolis, and the social and cultural importance of such micropolis for the city, the history, and the memory of Trieste. This history is also that of an empire, of its governance and of the many actors operating at the local, regional and global levels, despite an ever-present pandemic risk
Published Online: April 8, 2020 DOI: 10.13128/cromohs-11314| Video | full text
Cromohs Journal
The Turks and the Plague in the 18th Century
Eighteenth-century European views of the Ottomans reveal a complex set of politico-religious interests, as the Ottoman Empire declined militarily and gradually became less an object of fear. It was associated with certain clichéd images, in particular of despotism and fanaticism. Among these associations was the prevalence of the plague, which was endemic in many parts of the Ottoman empire, while after 1720 it no longer ravaged Europe. While this situation was often explained by the climate, many authors associated the prevalence of the plague with what they called Turkish “fatalism”, claiming that the Muslim belief in predestination prevented governments and individuals from taking any of the precautions against the disease used by Europeans. Thus the plague became part of the stock of anti-Turkish arguments, used in the justifications for political alignments in the Mediterranean. In the 1780s, an anti-Turkish author like the Frenchman Volney opposed those who supported the Ottomans as a bulwark against Russian expansionism, and argued for their expulsion from Europe and the Mediterranean; he went as far as identifying the Turks with the contagion, claiming that it was brought from Istanbul and had never been known in the Mediterranean before the arrival of the Turks.
Published Online: April 22, 2020 DOI: 10.13128/cromohs-11563| Video | full text
Cromohs Journal
Disposing of corpses during World War I
Belligerents that took part in the First World War could not have anticipated the lethality of the conflict. Within a few weeks of the war’s outbreak, armies were overwhelmed with corpses. Their existing policies and logistics to dispose of dead bodies were insufficient. As corpses piled up, they became a real epidemiological threat. Armies were relatively mobile, and it was feared that contagion from corpses to soldiers could also spread to civilian populations. When corpses putrefy, bacteria multiply and corpses become agents for the propagation of pathogens, particularly if the bodies were infected with typhoid, cholera or dysentery prior to their death. As a result of the threat posed by unprecedented number of corpses, First World War armies set up what I refer to as ‘body disposal policies and practices’. Those were created and trialled to dispose of corpses as efficiently and safely as possible through mass graves and cremation for instance, mobilising many soldiers, gravediggers and complex logistics.
Published Online: April 30, 2020 DOI: 10.13128/cromohs-11563| Video |
Cromohs Journal
Thucydides and the Plague of Athens (430-426 B.C.)
In 431 B.C. a war exploded in Greece between the two major political, economic and military powers of the time, Athens and Sparta, and their allies. Generally known as the Peloponnesian War, this great war spanned an entire period of 27 years and led to the total defeat of Athens (404 B.C.). In the summer of 430 B.C., a deadly epidemic broke out in Athens. The first phase of the disease lasted two whole years. In 427 B.C. the epidemic struck back in a somewhat weakened form for about a year. The Athenians lost 5,450 heavy-armed warriors, 300 equestrians of noble birth, a high number of auxiliary soldiers and a still higher of civilians (citizens, resident aliens and slaves). It is estimated that one quarter to almost one third of the entire population passed away (c. 60,000-80,000 people).
Published Online: May 25, 2020 DOI: 10.13128/cromohs-11691| Video | full text
Cromohs Journal
The Yellow Fever and the Italian States in 1804
Since the plague pandemic of the 13th century, Italian states have created sanitary institutions to deal with epidemics. However, even though all the Italian states had similar sanitary institutions they reacted quite differently when yellow fever struck Livorno in 1804. This paradox – a variety of political answers to the same biological threat – reveals the inextricable nature of the political, economic, social and diplomatic stakes in the management of epidemics. First, health magistrates played a crucial diplomatic role, for the territories suspected of being infected were subjected to quarantine with serious economic consequences. Second, although health policies were based on uncertain and changing medical knowledge, they were meant to be universal and legitimate. Meanwhile, the population did not remain passive in the face of health measures: the richest managed to circumvent the regulations while the poor fled the infected city.
Published Online: May 25, 2020 DOI: 10.13128/cromohs-11783| Video | full text
Journal of Early Modern Studies
Sir Thomas Browne and the Plague
Sir Thomas Browne’s little treatise is here published for the first time in an annotated version. It offers illuminating insights in how a prominent practicing physician and scholar from Norwich reacts to the plague hitting England in Early Modern times and the small help the medical knowledge about the plague from Paracelsus to Browne, which he examines with great learning.
Published: July 31, 2020 2020 | DOI: 10.13128/jems-2279-7149-11931| full text
Journal of Early Modern Studies
‘my good sweett mouse’. Letters in Time of Plague
Among the Henslowe-Alleyn papers donated by Edward Alleyn to Dulwich College in 1619 is a group of letters exchanged in 1593 between the Henslowe household in London, where Alleyn’s young wife Joan then lived, and Edward Alleyn, then touring in the provinces with Lord Strange’s men, when the London theatres were closed on account of the plague. These letters have always been read for the (scanty) contribution they give to the history of Elizabethan theatre. What has not been considered is their pragmatic peculiarity, which illustrates a real, and probably very rare case of collaboration in letter writing. Joan Alleyn’s literacy was probably either incomplete, or null, and the letters sent to Alleyn were written by Henslowe, who was Joan’s step-father, and who, in turn, ‘received’ Alleyn’s letters to Joan and probably read them to her.
Published October 1, 2020 | DOI: 10.13128/jems-2279-7149-12082 | full text
Substantia Journal
Covid-19: Physical Distancing Will Make Science Closer to Citizen Participation in Decision Making
Stefano Cinti, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
Nowadays, social distancing is mandatory in various countries worldwide. It is defined as a non-pharmaceutical interventions for preventing the spread of COVID-19, by maintaining a distance among people and reducing the frequency of contacts with each other. However, the correct definition, as reported somewhere, should be physical distancing. Populations are “socially” close, citizens are experimenting novel approaches of communication, and novel way to help. Of course, in the era of social networks, everybody is enabled to get in touch, even with people that were missing since lot of time. The velocity of how life goes, the necessity of getting results, the demonstration of own value and the invention of brand-new strategies to overcome the generic “everyday” issues, covering all the fields such as family, job, friends, etc., are facing with a pandemic monster.
Accepted: 2020-04-08 | Published Online: 2020-04-08 | DOI: 10.13128/Substantia-900 | full text
Scienze del Territorio Journal
Se il pianeta è malato lo saremo anche noi: crisi climatica, ambientale e sanitaria
Luca Mercalli, Società Meteorologica Italiana and ISPRA, Italy
It is widely known that all environmental alterations have an interconnected role which, sooner or later, directly or indirectly affects the health of humanity. However, the fundamental inactivity of politics and economy in countering this drift makes things worse, with the growing risk of triggering brutal and irreversible changes in the Earth-system. Ironically, the global health emergency has shown that rapid and radical choices can generate immediate positive effects in environmental terms: think of the drastic reduction in climate-altering emissions caused by the lockdown. Thus, such forced response indicates, perhaps, the way to more reflective strategies able to teach us (again) to live in harmony with nature.
Accepted: 2020-10-17 | Published Online: 2020-10-18 | DOI: 10.13128/sdt-12137 | full text
Media Education Journal
Il virus incontrollato dell’infodemia
Igor Scognamiglio1, Diana Salzano2
1 Dipartimento di Scienze formative, psicologiche e della comunicazione, Università degli studi di Napoli “Suor Orsola Benincasa”, Italy
2 Dipartimento di Studi Politici e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
The aim of the present paper is to argue, from a critical perspective, the theme of fake news and online misinformation about Covid19 disease and to investigate the role of infodemic (developed in mainstream and online communication) in determining a difficult management of behaviors and emotions. Moreover, the paper aims to investigate the role of the new opinion leaders of online communication (more experienced users or communicators at the service of mainstream information agencies), able to facilitate the interpretation of events. These particular types of stakeholders breathe new life into the “two steps flow of communication” model theorized by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955). Furthermore, through the thought of Castells and the agenda setting paradigm, the paper emphasizes the role of the media construction of news and of the theming and indexing processes in the representation of the Covid19 epidemic. In this regard, the infodemic is analyzed as a hyper-thematization process. The news framing operation about the Coronavirus disease is important to understand how fear spreads and how much is fondamental the role of media (and digital) education to properly manage news.
Accepted: 2020-11-01 | Published Online: 2020-11-02 | DOI: 10.36253/me-9933 | full text
Media Education Journal
Pandemia, controllo digitale e democrazia: un’esperienza DaD di Filosofia e Media education
Lia De Marco, Liceo “G. Bianchi Dottula” Bari, Italy
This article presents the teaching experience Pandemic, digital control and democracy conducted in the 5th AU and 5th BU classes of the “G. Bianchi Dottula” of Bari in the months of March and April 2020, in the lockdown period due to the Covid-19 health emergency. The path, based on the combination of research-action methods, consisted in the discussion of philosophical issues in a transversal perspective through a targeted DaD approach (with the help of Padlet, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Screen-cast-o-matic, Rai Scuola and many others), in view of the State Exams. In a historical moment in which the discussion on the present is of extreme urgency and the awareness of the processes in progress is decisive, the narration of this good practice could contribute to the sharing of didactically effective experiences in consideration of the next DDI.
Accepted: 2020-10-24 | Published Online: 2020-11-02 | DOI: 10.36253/me-9650 | full text
Studi sulla Formazione – Open Journal of Education
Un’emergenza inquietante a più volti
Alessandro Mariani
Ordinario di Pedagogia generale e sociale – Università degli studi di Firenze, Italy
As highlighted by this contribution, the “COVID-19” pandemic has dramatically recalled and universally established some transdisciplinary frontiers that also impose a pedagogical and philosophical-educational reflection.
Published Online: 2020-07–03 | DOI: 10.13128/ssf-11794 | full text