Coproducing Responses to COVID-19 with Community-Based Organizations: Lessons from Zhejiang Province,China

Zhejiang Province achieved one of the best records in containing the COVID-19 pandemic in China. What lessons can the world learn from it? What roles do community-based organizations play in this success story? Based on more than 100 interviews during and after the outbreak in Zhejiang, this article provides a road map of how community-based organizations were involved in the three distinct stages of Zhejiang's response to COVID-19. The authors recommend that public sector leaders (1) strategically leverage the strengths of community-based organizations at multiple stages of the COVID-19 response; (2) incentivize volunteers to participate in epidemic prevention and control; (3) provide data infrastructure and digital tracking platforms; and (4) build trust and long-term capacity of community-based organizations.     

Driving citizen engagement through Twitter: The case of COVID-19 vaccination drive in India

Effective crisis communication is essential to efficiently handle the uncertainty and anxiousness of citizens during the COVID-19 crisis. Government Twitter handles are an excellent platform for faster information dissemination and engaging citizens. While most government ministries actively use Twitter, limited attention is given to its modus operandi. Using data retrieved from the official Twitter handle of 'The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare' (MOHFW) of India, the current study examines the effect of the content characteristics, including content type and media type, on citizen engagement measured as tweet likes and retweets. The findings are based on 3742 tweets from MOHFW, recording more than 4.06 million likes and 1.23 million retweets over the initial six months of the largest COVID-19 vaccination drive. Results show that content-sharing guidance for stakeholders gained the maximum engagement, while the latest news about the COVID-19 crisis resulted in the least engagement. Photos gained maximum engagement, while statuses resulted in the least engagement. The results illuminate the textual features of the government's Twitter communication and will enable policymakers to manage their social media content strategy diligently.     

加强我国公共卫生治理体系和治理能力现代化的思考——以科学认识和把握疫情防控的新常态为视角

全球范围内,变异流感病毒感染事件的发生间隔期出现缩短的趋势,进入20世纪90年代以后,这种事件平均每2年就发生一次。当前,我国新型冠状病毒感染的肺炎疫情(以下简称“新冠肺炎疫情”)防控的“总体战、阻击战”取得了重要的阶段性成果,但新型冠状病毒也许不会像SARS那样很快消失。因此,需要经常应对新发传染病的挑战或许会成为疫情防控的“新常态”。本文在分析新冠肺炎疫情本身的特点和全球新发传染病流行趋势的基础上,本着学先进、补短板、堵漏洞、强弱项的原则,提出在疫情防控进入“新常态”后如何有效加强我国公共卫生治理体系和治理能力现代化的建议。     

Navigating collaborative governance in Florida: An analysis of local governments resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

This study investigates the effectiveness of collaborative governance in the context of state and local government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. Our analysis uncovers how local authorities have successfully adapted to implement policies to increase resilience and address the crisis, despite facing challenges, constraints, and limitations. Our findings underscore the significance of considering unique local characteristics when addressing pandemics and shed light on the potential influences of state-level actors on Home Rule. Notably, research examining the interplay between state decisions and Home Rule during a pandemic is scarce. We utilize Florida as a case study to examine local government responses to COVID-19, employing a qualitative analysis of data from webinars hosted by the Florida League of Cities and media reports on local government actions. To substantiate our findings and encourage further research, we apply the collaborative governance framework in the context of local government administrative responsibilities.     

Is social media intelligence private? Privacy in public and the nature of social media intelligence

ABSTRACT

SOCMINT (SOCial Media INTelligence) is increasingly considered relevant and cost efficient information, and the exploitation of social media information in the name of security and public safety is generally regarded as unproblematic. We will critically scrutinize this claim and argue that the exploitation of such information by Intelligence and Security Services raises new ethical concerns. Drawing on recent moral discussions about privacy, we will argue that individuals have an interest in privacy in public spaces, including online spaces. We will discuss the role of such public privacy interests and argue that the systematic surveillance of social media platforms by security authorities potentially entail a negative chilling effect.     

关于加强基层医疗卫生服务建设的建议——兼论推进疫情防控关口前移

加强基层卫生服务,推进疫情关口前移,是落实习近平总书记关于疫情防控重要指示精神的重要举措。本文在总结当前基层疫情防控现状的基础上,分析国外家庭医生制度特点及对我国的借鉴意义,探讨我国基层卫生服务建设的重点、难点与不足以及在重大疫情防控中的作用,并在此基础上提出建议:加强基层卫生服务体系建设,培养全科医生公共卫生应急技能,强化基层疫情应急服务,加强医防融合和全民健康教育,推进疫情防控关口前移,构建重大传染病的社会屏障。     

Nonprofit Service Continuity and Responses in the Pandemic: Disruptions,Ambiguity, Innovation,and Challenges

This Viewpoint essay examines the service delivery responses of nonprofit organizations that offer homeless support services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Government mandates and severe human needs have forced nonprofits to adapt quickly. Literature reviews provide little information about how nonprofits should manage service continuity under pandemics. Data collected from websites and interviews with nonprofits executives provide an understanding of adaptations and innovations. The study uses a crisis response model—“Disruptions-Ambiguities-Innovations-Challenges” (DAIC)—to demonstrate how social service nonprofits are responding to challenges under COVID-19. Lessons learned are useful for scholars and practitioners to understand ways nonprofits have remained agile and innovative.     

Baby Boom or Bust? the New Media Effect on Political Participation

A considerable number of studies have investigated the influence of new media on political attitudes and behaviors. However, much of this research focuses on young people, ignoring other age cohorts, particularly Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). To fill this gap, this research examines the influence of attention to specific forms of traditional and online media on Baby Boomers’ online and offline political participation during the fall 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. Drawing on a Baby Boomer survey panel, responses were collected during the 2012 general election to analyze the empirical relationship between attention to traditional and online media sources and political participation. Data analyses reveal that Boomers’ attention to traditional media sources, particularly television, did not increase their offline and online political participation. Instead, various forms of offline and online participation were consistently heightened by Boomers’ attention to presidential candidate websites. In addition, attention to Facebook for campaign information was positively linked to online engagement. Boomers’ attention to blogs, Twitter, and YouTube were associated with only certain types of online and offline activities.     

Social Media and Revolutionary Waves: The Case of the Arab Spring

This article argues that during the Arab Spring social media served as a tactical tool of mobilization, communication, and coordination; as an instrument of domestic and international revolutionary contagion; and, critically, as a means of enhancing pan-Arab consciousness which, in turn, was fertile soil for that contagion. These three interrelated functions are best analyzed using a revolutionary wave theoretical approach. In its absence, the Arab Spring becomes a patchwork of analytically incoherent “cascade protests.” In fact, the Arab world witnessed an extremely coherent process of revolutionary contagion whose liberal and democratic ideology was disseminated transnationally by social media. The impressive speed, scale, and effectiveness of this contagion would have not been possible without the effect of the Arab public sphere—itself partially enabled by social media—on the increasingly cohesive pan-Arab consciousness. Fundamentally, the Arab Spring was the first revolutionary wave ever to reflect the change in power relations originating in the rise of new communication networks.     

Health awareness of rural households towards COVID-19 pandemic in India: Evidence from Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank

This paper aims at analysing the level of awareness of the symptoms and the methods of protection from COVID-19 based on the Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank, collected from 5200 households belonging to six states in India that is, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Data has been analysed using chi-square test and regression analysis. Results of the analysis indicate that about 70.8% rural households are aware of the symptom of coronavirus, and 81.9% are aware of the preventive measures for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Analysis indicates a significant association between awareness level on symptoms and prevention of COVID-19 and socio-demographics and location. The study further analyses the key determinants of awareness of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures using the logistics regression model, indicating that age, gender, education, income, poverty status, access to information, cash relief and medical services are the determining factors of health awareness on COVID-19 pandemic among rural households in India. Considering the importance of self-protecting measures in fighting the pandemic, this paper highlights the importance of strengthening public awareness for containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

中国社会安全网研究——青岛市“阳光救助工程”的创新实践

"阳光救助工程"是青岛市2002年7月开始对中国的社会安全网建设进行的创新实践.它有效地保障了城市贫困人口特别是下岗、失业职工的基本生活权益.以青岛市"阳光救助工程"的创新实践为例,研究了中国地方政府创新对社会安全网建设的作用.通过分析"阳光救助工程"产生和发展的动力机制,并对该项举措的创新绩效进行评估后,认为,"阳光救助工程"的创新实践对完善中国社会安全网带来了许多启示.这些启示主要包括:第一,对城市贫困进行综合治理时,应在政府主导下扩大社会参与;第二,贫困问题并不单单体现在收入匮乏上,实际上还涉及到行为主体的物质、精神、社会地位等多个方面的表现;第三,从社会救济到社会救助体系的发展和完善中,应该充分发挥个人的主体性和能动性;第四,城市社会救助体系是一个多目标、多层次的社会系统,包括救济、就业、医疗等针对弱势群体的社会救助制度;第五,社区在社会安全网建设中应起到积极作用,充分发挥社区的社会保障作用.     

The Tea Party and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Mainstreaming New Right Populism in the Corporate News Media

Within months of Barack Obama's election, a putatively grass-roots conservative uprising emerged to challenge the Democratic Party's agenda. In this article, we analyze the role of cable news in the rise of the Tea Party during the current “crisis of neoliberalism”—a moment of political-economic volatility brought about by the Great Recession. We argue that the Tea Party's political purpose is to hold together the New Right coalition of business elites and white working- and middle-class Americans that undergirds the neoliberal political project. In the context of a deregulated corporate mass media, we show that both “right-wing” and “moderate” cable networks mainstreamed the Tea Party by framing it as a legitimate social movement, enabling the widespread projection of right-wing populist discourse in support of neoliberalism. In light of our study, we suggest that democratizing the mass media is crucial for a sustained progressive political response in the United States.     

当代时空压缩背景下新冠疫情的社会特征及治理策略选择

自2019年年底暴发并延续至今的新冠疫情,并非偶发性的自然事件,而是内源于当代社会并造成重大全球性灾难的社会事件。时空压缩既是当代社会时空结构特征的凝练表达,也是新冠疫情发生的基本场域,准确把握新冠疫情的本质离不开时空压缩这一重要背景。一方面,新冠疫情的发生始终处于当代时空结构中,它在暴发、传播以及治理过程中表现出的社会特征,是新冠病毒的自然属性与时空压缩社会特征遭遇和碰撞的产物;另一方面,新冠疫情的社会特征不仅突显出时空压缩背景下当代社会的高风险性和脆弱性,而且打破了人们对资本逻辑支配下时空压缩破坏性后果盲目乐观的迷思。遏制新冠疫情蔓延的关键是准确界定当代时空压缩背景下新冠疫情的社会特征,并采取有针对性的治理策略。     

Hybrid Coordination for Coping with the Medical Surge from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Paired Assistance Programs in China

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to public health care systems and demands intergovernmental coordination to cope with the resulting medical surge. This essay analyzes the operation of Paired Assistance Programs (PAPs) in China, offering a timely comparative case for researchers and practitioners to examine when reflecting on the classic debate over the hierarchical versus network approaches to coordination in emergency management. PAPs highlight the importance of network management and necessity of institutionalizing mechanisms of governance to facilitate coordination within multilevel response systems.     

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe, every government in the world has been forced to enact policies to slow the spread of the virus. While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the COVID-19 policies of their neighbors instead of responding to domestic conditions. Political and geographic considerations play a role in determining which countries imitate one another, but even among countries that are politically or geographically distant, nationalist regimes seem to favor certain approaches towards the pandemic. We investigate why this is the case by examining whether countries that embrace a nationalist ideology are more likely to emulate the COVID-19 policies of similarly nationalist regimes. We demonstrate that, even after controlling for domestic circumstances and linguistic, trade, geographic, and political connections, nationalist countries are emulating each other’s responses. These results are robust and shed light not only on new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also on the growing international cooperation of nationalist regimes and leaders.

     

Independent review of emergency economic stimulus measures: Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19

Major government emergency interventions demand, and generally receive, independent scrutiny. This article looks back at reviews of the Australian government's economic stimulus measures introduced in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), in anticipation of reviews of responses to the COVID-19 emergency, noting similarities and differences between the two crises. We examine 10 independent reviews of the Australian government's response to the GFC with a particular focus on their nature and the context in which they occurred. As a result, we identify five themes: when and how often reviews are conducted; recognition of context; the need for clear program objectives; explicit design principles; and governance. We develop a typology of independent reviews that has three key and interrelated dimensions: purpose, timing, and reviewer. We observe that there was patchwork coverage of the GFC measures, with no single report providing a holistic assessment of what was achieved or lessons learnt. We contend that, notwithstanding differences between crises, the typology will aid understanding of the role, key issues, and contributions of reviews that have already been, or will be, commissioned into COVID-19 and future emergency economic stimulus measures.     

Formal and Informal Volunteering in a Nordic Context: The Case of Denmark

This article compares three different forms of volunteering: formal volunteering which is typically carried out in formalized organizations; informal practical help which is most often provided in a face-to-face context and requires the giving of time; and economic assistance which requires neither the co-presence of actors nor the giving of time. The different nature and structuring of these formal and informal ways of contributing to society suggest that they require different resources. Grounded in sociological theory we argue that three sets of factors are particularly relevant for explaining volunteering: personal or ‘human capital’ factors, social network resources, and civic values. We test in a multivariate analysis how various indicators of these personal and social resources relate to the different forms of volunteering. The study relies on a comprehensive survey of the Danish adult population. The findings, therefore, are interpreted in the light of this particular institutional environment which forms the backdrop for individual choices about volunteering. We find that the different forms of formal and informal volunteering seem to form a continuum of civic engagement going from the most public to the most private. Furthermore, compared to informal ways of volunteering, formal volunteering seems to be more contingent upon access to and supply of different forms of personal and social resources.     

Volunteering in the Arab World: Bringing Back People into Politics?

This article analyzes the concept of volunteering in the Arab world. The main argument is that the nature of the Arab world in addition to the historical development of civil society directly affected the philosophy of volunteering in the region. Since civic services were not framed nor included in the national agendas of the state, this had a direct negative effect on the development of the act. However, due to social, economic, and political factors, this trend is changing: As of 2000, organizations and societies started to understand the importance of volunteering and its link to the social and economic revival of societies; Arab states started to encourage the act by providing the right legal and political environment. However, these different policies are not building democratic societies nor encouraging civic engagement. The article concludes with recommendations for how to bring people back into civic and political society as well as suggestions for future research.     

Trusting,Happy, Religious,and Giving: Explaining Volunteering in the Context of Nordic Exceptionalism

Abstract

Using data from the European Values Study, this article examines the mechanisms through which social capital facilitates volunteering in Nordic countries. Three specific mechanisms are examined as drivers of volunteering: Generalized trust, subjective well-being, and religious activity. We find that trust bridges social capital and that people volunteer more as their level of generalized and institutional trust increases. Our results also indicate that individuals with higher levels of well-being and those who attend religious services regularly are more likely to volunteer.     

Authoritarian populism and response to COVID-19: A comparative study of the United States,India, and Brazil

As the phenomenon of populism is in the preliminary stages of exploratory research, the present study involves an empirical investigation involving a case study of the United States, India, and Brazil to examine whether a correlation exists between populism and management of COVID-19. The study adopts the ideational approach of populism as a set of ideas or discourse to review how core conceptual features of populism have impacted on management of COVID-19. The study has two main objectives: (1) to examine whether populism in the United States, India, and Brazil has determined “a populist response” to the pandemic in dealing with the health crises and (2) to explore the management of COVID-19 in the states led by right-wing populism and the commonality of populist approaches adopted in handling the health crisis. Comparing the three states' statistical data of management models, the study has argued that common populist mechanisms such as distrust for experts, contempt for institutions, and suspicion of “others” have guided the US, India, and Brazilian leadership response to COVID-19. It further argues that leadership in the United States, India, and Brazil has prevented effective management by politicizing the crisis, aggravating social polarization, and contradicting expert advice. Moreover, populist and nationalist orientation of the leadership has evaded responsibility in these states with the leadership blaming ethnicities for spreading the virus and by weakening societal solidarity.