The COVID-19 Contagion–Pandemic Dyad: A View from Social Sciences

Abstract

The objective of this concept paper focuses on the relevance of the analytical potential of Social Sciences for understanding the multiple implications and challenges posed by the COVID-19 contagion–pandemic dyad. This pandemic is generating a global threat with a high number of deaths and infected individuals, triggering enormous pressure on health systems. Most countries have put in place a set of procedures based on social distancing, as well as (preventive) isolation from possible infected and transmitters of the disease. This crisis has profound implications and raises issues for which the contribution of Social Sciences does not seem to be sufficiently mobilised. The contribution of Social Sciences is paramount, in terms of their knowledge and skills, to the knowledge of these problematic realities and to act in an informed way on these crises. Social Sciences are a scientific project focused on interdisciplinarity, theoretical and methodological plurality. This discussion is developed from the systems of relationships between social phenomena in the coordinates of time and place, and in the socio-historical contexts in which they are integrated. A pandemic is a complex phenomenon as it is always a point of articulation between natural and social determinations. The space of the discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as the expression of a coalition of discourses, i.e., the interaction of various discourses, combined in re-interpretative modalities of certain realities and social phenomena. The circumstantial coalitions of interests, which shape the different discursive records and actions produced by different agents of distinct social spaces, enable the acknowledgement and legitimation of this pandemic threat and danger, and the promotion of its public management.

COVID-19 and Stigmatisation Processes

“…The role of the scientific community is also highly relevant (Chopra & Arora, 2020). Interdisciplinarity between Sciences (Natural and Social) is pivotal for this process to be successful (Serpa, Ferreira, & Santos, 2017;Ferreira, Sá, Martins, & Serpa, 2020), inasmuch that any pandemic, as a complex process, needs to be analysed transversely in a complementary way, for which the contribution of Social Sciences is also critical, by highlighting the relationship between the social conditions of existence and the shaping of social representations, in the specific case under analysis, about COVID-19 .…”

Effectiveness of Digital Technology in Education During COVID-19 Pandemic. A Bibliometric Analysis

“…This teacher education force is innovative training to adapt to digitalizing education in the future [19]. Solutions for improving learning achievements through distance education also discussing, such as universities should restructure curriculums and outcomes as well as provide good enough facility for technical equipment wellrunning [5] [20], teachers and students invest enough time, training, and practice for readiness as well as critical digital pedagogy [21]; [10]; [22]; student engagement, involved and participate in online learning activities is critical for success in online courses [23], [24] devising and maintaining an encouraging learning atmosphere, giving students consistent and prompt feedback, using a variety of technologies, building community [20].…”

Practicing Social Isolation During a Pandemic in Brazil: A Description of Psychosocial Characteristics and Traits of Personality During COVID-19 Lockout

“…Since early 2020, there has been an abundance of research on Covid-19 pandemic mainly from medical and epidemiological disciplines ( Ward, 2020 ). However, there is a critical need to have an interdisciplinary conversation, both theoretically and empirically, on the psychosocial and sociological consequences of the pandemic experience ( Ferreira et al, 2020 ).…”