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Recording and commenting in stories, accounts and moments about the pandemic unfolding
Category: Outlook Tower & Sociological Imaginations
How is sociology done during a pandemic? The sociological imagination sees the social in all things, while terms like pandemic appear to halt analysis and close off some imagined futures. Sociologically minded folk are challenged to discover the ways in which the pandemic shapes and is shaped by social relations and the role of theory and method in this. ‘Outlook Tower’, once the base for Patrick Geddes and the development of urban sociology, is now a busy tourist presence in Edinburgh’s cityscape and acts as a useful metaphor – both as an ivory ‘lookout’ tower and also as deeply involved in the quotidian life of the city. The irony is increased, because its main attraction now is its camera obscura, a curious device which both records and distorts, and it too acts as a metaphor for sociological discourse. Posts appear in date order most recent first, so please read through. And to contribute, please contact Liz Stanley at liz.stanley@ed.ac.uk
#socimaginations
What’s happening to sociological imaginations in present circumstances? Having been to lots of other university sociology websites recently, the dominant trend appears to be that sociology folk have fallen into research mode, and research mode of a fairly standard kind. Nothing wrong in that, of course, and in a sense it is what sociology is for. At least there is a response to present circumstances. But it is interesting that there is little highlighting or consideration in any depth of the kind of things friends, colleagues and I have been communicating about over the last few weeks. What is happening is not standard, so sociological responses should hopefully become far wider. Brainstorming on this, and rereading emails and thinking about conversations in Skype, Zoom and Teams meetings, the kinds of things that have come up in discussions I’ve been party to include, for starters:
The oddities of how time is being experienced and some stark differences in this between differently situated people
Reconfigurations of outside and inside, both outside and inside the lockdown location, and outside and inside the body
‘Shielding’ and, when some people are defined as inherently vulnerable, what that does to ideas of autonomy, independence and agency
The changing relationship between mind and emotions, between rationality and emotional responses to the powerful feelings that the deaths of so many people are engendering
The rush of many social scientists as well as medics and others to claim expertise and control, in the face of something so far not amendable to anything other than being entirely cut-off from human hosts
The different ways in which sociality and relationship are being remade and how this might continue, including in relation to teaching and researching, as we enter a ‘social bubble’ context
The increased proactive role of the state and extension of its powers and responsibilities, and possible new conceptions of the citizen and theirs, including migrants and other non-citizens within
The loss of a sense of a definite ‘after’ and what this is doing to conceptions of both the future and before
[added 16 May] The work/leisure/domestic relationship is undergoing potentially seismic change. Is employment and the relationship between workplace and home-place for some more privileged sectors of the workforce experiencing an accelerated reconfiguration, but with a more traditional separation remaining for the majority?
[added 21 May] What an organisation is, because of stetches in its formal boundaries, is undergoing accelerated change, with many more people working remotely – and working more than when ‘at work’.
What are other sociologically-minded people feeling, thinking, talking about? Contributions on any of these or other aspects are welcomed and can be as brief as you like and take the form of a paragraph, short essay, photograph, poem…
Poppy Gerrard-Abbott is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh looking at sexual violence in universities. She is also a sociology tutor, feminist activist and has just started a sociological podcast on the COVID-19 pandemic, Difficult Conversations. She works as the lead researcher for the Emily Test charity creating a Gender-Based Violence Charter for Scottish Universities and Colleges and she often runs women’s circles focusing on gender-based violence.
@GerrardPoppy
Respond to this blog: pgerrard@ed.ac.uk
What has happened to us all? Coronavirus is a health issue, yes, but there’s something about such a crisis that brings out the pessimist, the optimist, the conspiracy theorist, the journalist, the judge, the social media influencer, the feminist, the radical revolutionary – even the yoga pro, pastry chef and the wannabe broadcaster in us. It can also bring out the resentful, the angry, the fearful and the blamer in us. It brings out the doomsday in us. Can we break free from ‘it’s the Chinese trying to take over the world’ / plague sent by God / the end is nigh? Yes, I believe we can, and as social scientists, I think sometimes we are sometimes well-positioned to help cut through looming, dark dystopia. Such sentiments are also telling us something – people have a lot to say right now, and we perhaps have a responsibility to hear and record it.
In March, I recorded a podcast with my colleague and friend, PhD
researcher on digital intimacy and sex work, Eva Duncanson, because we were due
to deliver two lectures together. These were cancelled due to the sudden
outbreak and then came a lightbulb moment (that I wish had occurred much
earlier on in my PhD so I could spend less time stressing and more time writing
the damn thing): in a crisis, I don’t have to produce things that are perfect.
Wow – who knew? It took a pandemic for me to realise that under stress and
change, something is better than nothing. So in 48 hours, we mashed the
lectures together into a podcast, decided to put it up on Youtube, spent a
couple of hours swearing and then it was uploaded.
When the Edinburgh Decameron website was about to be published, I was
asked: ‘How did you come to have the idea for the podcasts and how did you make
the podcast happen?’ Well, with my newfound attitude of ‘imperfection is always
better than nothing’ (I am hellbent on making this last) the Difficult
Conversations podcast was born following on from my podcast with Eva. Firstly,
I enjoyed it so much that I thought ‘why end it here?’. Secondly, when the
pandemic broke out, I had moments where I felt like nothing else really
mattered in social science research except crisis: climate change, why Trump is
Trump, and COVID-19. I pondered about submitting an ethics application to do
some formal research on sociological approaches to COVID-19 but I knew there would
be others better resourced than a self-funded PhD student like me working two
to three jobs at any one time. Plus, with such a workload, I didn’t want to
chain myself to writing a coronavirus thesis on top of my PhD and the other
research work I do. I didn’t want the isolation of writing, the head-spinning
document corrections, the slowness of writing a paper. I craved for something
that brought people together, got us talking, let off steam from the crisis,
allowed for both laughing and seriousness, and got content out fast.
This approach was hugely complemented by the ‘it’s either imperfect and
finished or perfect and unfinished’ attitude I learnt early on in the pandemic
when I just couldn’t find the right online birthday gifts for friends and
family and I never got further than item one on my to-do list because my
workload increased so much from the pandemic (teaching, working in gender-based
violence, looking after people). At first, I was worried that I couldn’t
release anything until I had a professional microphone, 25 audio editing
tutorials under my belt, and a graphics qualification. I then remembered that
we were in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, with limited stocks, slow
deliveries, fast-moving policy, people at risk and people literally dying. I
put the perfectionism down and decided that a rough-around-the-edges approach
was exactly what I needed to re-learn and what the world needed to expect at
these times.
It’s punk rock academia, that’s what I’m convincing myself: me, three
days in the same leggings, my dipping Wifi connection, my cereal-bowl covered
desk and my laptop. We’re going to create a podcast series together. That’s
right. In the words of my next door neighbour “Well, pirate radio changed the
world”. Yes, I thought. Pirate radio station operators weren’t concerned with
capitalist productivity and shiny studios.
Completing this picture is an Argos microphone – which, by the way, was one of the few brands not out of stock. I am currently imagining how many Dads have bagged such microphones and are currently in their garages living their dreams and ticking through the pandemic by DJ-ing their favourite 60’s playlist to three listeners. It fills my heart with joy.
I kept my philosophy in sight: forget perfection, just produce content
that matters. Record what’s going on, and get people talking. During this
pandemic, I learnt that I’ve had a gendered and subconscious belief for years
that I just cannot understand technology. I don’t like it and it doesn’t like
me. It was a load of rubbish – everyone, absolutely everyone, is always in
process.
Since it began the podcast series has covered sex work, feminist
approaches to COVID-19, single mums, the higher education strikes, supermarket
workers, and pandemic financial difficulty. I recruit guests through
colleagues, friends, social media. It has amazed me how people are feeling such
immense pressure and stress but are still willing to share, connect and donate
their time. Some people I’ve found, have felt desperate to be heard during the
silences of the lockdown.
This week, I’m releasing one on gender-based violence and coronavirus,
and one with newly qualified nurses. Coming up, we have episodes on whether
there will be a financial crash after the pandemic, the psychology of lockdown,
and on death and grief with some ‘death positivity’ activists. I am also hoping
to do an episode looking at sociological approaches to conspiracy theories. It
is a time for us to listen as well as talk, to understand rather than laugh or
judge, to observe rather than over-analyse. This is what the podcast is aiming
to do and what I think our wider role as sociologists needs to return to more
often. It aims to find a balanced, calm, serious – but at the same time,
informal and light-hearted – approach to the crisis. I want it to contribute to
academic material that isn’t just focused on the production of knowledge. I
want to help, in my own, tiny way, to cut through some of the panic and
hyper-anxiety and help bring shreds of reflection and clarity whilst also
lifting the voices of those that need to be heard right now. It is a panicked
time, yes, but where we can find our own small corners to do so, we can find
ways to connect with ourselves and others and choose not to live in constant
misery.
It goes without saying that COVID-19 is only partially a health crisis.
In my recent article on
women and the virus, I talk in-depth about how it is a political, economic, social,
institutional and gendered crisis. The podcast wants to cover the
less-represented angles of all this. What is happening to sex workers right
now? What do supermarket workers think when they’re off shift? How does
lockdown shine a light on patriarchy? How can we bear the grief this time
brings? I want it to bring something a bit more human than a paper would have
allowed me to do. I’m also recording short readings from some of my favourite
books on the podcast – it’s cheesy, but what better time to go on a personal
journey? I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow to me or anyone I know or
love, so I want to share some of the writers and subject matters that have
shaped who I am.
I have learnt a lot about myself whilst being in four walls for a few
weeks. One of the biggest learnings is that life can whizz by me when I’m
working multiple jobs and unfortunately I don’t get much time and space to go
‘yeah. That thing you did – that was great’. The most surprising thing is the
self-realisation that has come from the project. I have learnt I am
resourceful, resilient, compassionate, forgiving, and could be way less hard on
myself. I hope I can continue on that upwards trajectory of not shedding my self-doubt.
I wish that for you, too.
Interesting papers were given were given at an online symposium on 24 April 2020 hosted by the BSA. Much current discourse is cast in epidemiological terms, while this event firmly returned to the development of a sociological analysis. In order of speaking: Nik Brown drew useful comparisons between the present situation and how people experiencing cystic fibrosis manage their treatments and lives. Ipek Demir discussed the initial failure to take the levels of risk associated with the coronavirus seriously. Bridget Anderson’s presentation was concerned with the present emphasis on the nation and different ways of ‘joining the nation’, with the irony that many of those concerned do not have full citizenship rights and permanency. Susan Halford’s presentation was concerned with the possibility of new futures and seeing the pandemic as a kind of portal to a number of potential futures, both enabling and damaging. Danny Dorling situated the unfolding statistical statements about infections and deaths in the context of long-term trends involving both accelerations and de-accelerations. A podcast of this excellent event, chaired by Sue Scott, is available on the BSA website and on YouTube from here. Liz Stanley
