As of October 2021, Romania is one of the world’s most affected countries by Covid-19 pandemic, and this occurs on the background of a very slow rate of vaccination. Drawing on the sociology of storytelling, this article highlights various narratives that make the vaccination campaign in Romania difficult. Based on a case study on Romanian official vaccination page “RO Vaccinare,” a thematic analysis on six official narratives and subsequent 137 comments post on the official page highlighted both pro-vaccination narratives and anti-vaccination narratives. The two main narratives reflect different persuasive strategies, so the role of communication experts is vital in avoiding other further mis/disinformation. For example, pro-vaccination narratives repeatedly call for education as the most important variable, given that the detachment from conspiracy theories requires a certain level of socialization in this regard. In addition, the ‘science versus religion’ dichotomy is frequently discussed, with religion being seen as an obstacle to awareness of the role of a vaccination campaign. On the other hand, the motivations invoked in the anti-vaccination narratives discuss the vaccine as an ‘experimental serum,’ while the doctors who administer it are considered ‘killers.’ Also, some of the narratives in this category consider religion to be above science in terms of public health. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43545-022-00427-3.

Confidence in astrology remains a visible phenomenon in contemporary society, and this is a constant topic of academic interest. A survey based on 512 valid questionnaires were obtained from a non-probability sample of university students from Bucharest, in order to observe possible statistical relations between confidence in astrology, confidence in sciences such as medicine and mathematics, but also fields such as astronomy and horoscope. On the other hand, several statements have been used to measure the level of religiosity. Notable is the moderate positive correlation obtained between astrology and astronomy, but also the strong correlation between astrology and horoscope (this last correlation was expected). Broadly speaking, it is observed that astrology correlates positively with the variables that constitute the ‘inward’ component of religiosity, while the ‘outward’ component shows a rather negative correlation, but which does not enjoy a similar statistical significance. Astronomy, like medicine, outlines negative relation with the level of religiosity. Instead, the correlations that involve trust in medicine have a negative and moderate value, in relation to religiosity. In conclusion, it is observed that the trust in “strong sciences” generates more prompt correlations compared to the trust in astrology, while further studies are needed to clarify the reasons for such uncertain correlations between astrology and religiosity.

The complexity of blockchain technologies is reflected in the various ways in which social actors operate with crypto transactions, and this is seen in the wide range of discourses and practices adopted on the crypto market. Using social constructivism, this study highlights the fact that social practices in the crypto area respect certain thematic ideologies, through which individual discourses reflect different pragmatic expectations in relation to virtually encrypted transactions. Drawing on inductive thematic analysis based on 38 semi-structured interviews with Romanian investors, four major themes emerge: (1) unbreakable power of code encompasses rather libertarian discourses on potential state policies, (2) key role of peers explains the investments in the crypto market as a form of community membership, (3) assuming plenty of risks highlights the discourses focused on substantial and unpredictable gains, and (4) preferring safety above all encompasses discourses on financial stability through rather conservative behaviors.

Topics such as disinformation, misinformation, political polarization, and populism are frequently discussed in the social media literature. The purpose of this article is to investigate how the political emphasis on social media has evolved in the academic publications published in the last decade. Thus, using co-word analysis of the social science articles published between 2012 and 2021, which discuss politically about Facebook or Twitter ( N = 3389), this article investigates whether certain major and unexpected political events—such as Donald Trump’s presidential victory and the Brexit referendum—have influenced in any way the knowledge field related to social media publications. Thus, the 2017–2021 map brings new and popular words, such as “Covid-19,” which is associated in similar clusters with words such as disinformation, fake news, and infodemic. Furthermore, the emergence of the word “Russia” places it in a common cluster with words such as bots, elections, and agenda-setting. Also, the Twitter map, unlike the Facebook one, brings a particular emphasis on Donald Trump’s activity, which appears in clusters that are similar to topics that brought him popularity on Twitter, such as: meme, migration, and refugees. Such bibliometric associations should increase policymakers’ attention to the potential use of social media as a political tool, along with designing the solutions to limit such intrusions into future political events.

Youth studies represent a research field with visible potential, and its emergence has seen a substantial increase in the last decade. A longitudinal bibliometric analysis of sociological articles on youth was conducted using Web of Science (WoS) entries, with the analysis divided into three distinct decades, 1990–2019. From 41 sociological articles containing the keyword “youth” in 1990 to 704 in 2019, this evolution is reflected in the increasing interconnectedness of keyword co-occurrences. Thus, after 2000, keywords such as gender, adolescence, education, and race became increasingly popular, while keywords such as children and family structure, which were popular between 1990 and 1999, subsequently lost their relevance. The thematic cluster analysis reveals the emergence of new clusters, such as those centered around social media, LGBTQ, or mental health. The growth of occurrences for many keywords demonstrates the complex and heterogeneous development of the youth studies field in the sociological literature, so many future trends in this field remain unpredictable but promising at this time.