Reconceptualizing crisis

Rycker, Antoon De

doi:10.1075/dapsac.76.03der

Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture

2018

DOI: 10.1075/dapsac.76.03der

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Reconceptualizing crisis

Antoon De Rycker¹

Abstract: As a major socially significant phenomenon, crisis has been variously understood as an event, a moment of history, a turning point, a problem, a set of challenges, a paradox and so on. Drawing on third-generation practice theory and a range of case studies, the present study explores the possibility of reconceptualizing crisis as a social practice, i.e. as ‘doing crisis’. In addition, it considers whether a social practice approach can inform the analysis of crisis-related media practices and discourses. It is… Show more

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Cited by 2 publications

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Memories of War and the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

García

2020

Hu Arenas

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Spaniards born in a democracy have no recollection of living through war and what it entails. We can only access those memories via mediation, by listening to our relatives who were there, whose stories we become witnesses to, and which ultimately become our own collective witnessing. The remembrance of the Spanish Civil War passed on to us in this manner is a contested legacy, a complex combination of affects and mediated memories, coming from offline—as in conversations with our elders—and online—such as archival footage—resources. Experiencing war firsthand left indelible marks in our forebearers’ minds. Now the elderly must face this violent “war” and “postwar” rhetoric with the potential retraumatization it may cause. Not capable to understand why media and government officials alike call for heroes to resist and fight the crisis, a discourse heavily imbued with emotions and battlefront references does little to assuage citizens’ fears. Perpetual news reels on the number of dead per day worsen the psychological strain of a person in lockdown, akin to that of prison inmates, more so if that person endured an actual war and its aftermath. What might be done to lessen such harmful impacts? How can we change the narrative and make it more humane?

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Memories of War and the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

García

2020

Hu Arenas

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Laugh in Case of Emergency: Framing the Pandemic Through Memes in Italy and Russia

Marsili

Shchetvina

2022

Baltic Screen Media Review

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, meme culture prospered. New topics, styles and problems emerged from meme-sharing, resulting in a specific genre – quarantine memes. Although some of the possible causes could be linked to the lockdown boredom and consequent increase in screen-time among internet users; we argue that the other cause has to be sought in the complex role memes had (and still have) as instruments of symbolic framing. As De Rycker (2018) put forth, a crisis is a human activity carried out knowingly and intentionally. Understanding the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis, we aim to analyse quarantine memes as a participatory practice of ‘doing crisis’ – in particular, by framing its meanings and making sense of changes in everyday life. Quarantine memes exist in the context of uncertainty, risks and fears about people’s health, restrictions of freedom, stress and changes in daily routines. The creation of memes that emerged from this context frames the pandemic and the virus in a variety of ways, not only suggesting different points of view but also establishing norms, encouraging (dis)belief and satirically or creatively commenting on new COVID-related practices. Using a combination of digital ethnography and content analysis, we observed the meme-related participatory practices of quarantine memes on the most popular webpages in two countries: Russia (VKontakte) and Italy (Facebook). Temporally covering the first wave and the subsequent pandemic containment measures (February-October 2020), we distinguished a set of framing strategies that are suggested via memes by online audiences: alienation, avoidance, awareness-raising, critique, domestication, subversion, escapism and acknowledgement of emotions. Comparing and contrasting the topics and symbolic strategies that emerged in those countries, we showed that symbolic framing via memes is not a straightforward phenomenon, but a long-nuanced process in which different perceptions of the virus overlapped each other and changed through time.

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Reconceptualizing crisis

Cited by 2 publications

References 46 publications

Memories of War and the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

Memories of War and the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

Laugh in Case of Emergency: Framing the Pandemic Through Memes in Italy and Russia

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