scholarly journals Social representations of ‘social distancing’ in response to COVID-19 in the UK media

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212199003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Nerlich ◽  
Rusi Jaspal
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

The emergence and spread of a new pandemic, COVID-19, have raised topics of concern for health professionals, policy makers and publics across the globe. Governments have struggled to find the right policies to stop disease transmission, but all have introduced social distancing. In the United Kingdom this has come to be understood as staying at home and, when outside, maintaining a physical distance of approximately two metres between oneself and others. In this article, the authors examine the emergence of this new social representation as portrayed in one UK broadsheet and one tabloid with the widest circulation: The Times and The Sun, between early March and early April 2020. Using social representations theory and thematic analysis, the authors show that social distancing struggled to emerge from underneath government obfuscation. It was first seen as a threat to normal life, which in modernity is predicated on mobility; it was later portrayed as a threat to social order; and finally perceived as a burden that, like the lockdown (its conceptual twin), needed to be lifted.

scholarly journals Estimates of regional infectivity of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom following imposition of social distancing measures

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1829) ◽  
pp. 20200280
Author(s):  
Robert Challen ◽  
Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova ◽  
Martin Pitt ◽  
Tom Edwards ◽  
Luke Gompels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Regional Variability ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Serial Interval ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Long Timescales ◽  
Interval Distribution

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reproduction number has become an essential parameter for monitoring disease transmission across settings and guiding interventions. The UK published weekly estimates of the reproduction number in the UK starting in May 2020 which are formed from multiple independent estimates. In this paper, we describe methods used to estimate the time-varying SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number for the UK. We used multiple data sources and estimated a serial interval distribution from published studies. We describe regional variability and how estimates evolved during the early phases of the outbreak, until the relaxing of social distancing measures began to be introduced in early July. Our analysis is able to guide localized control and provides a longitudinal example of applying these methods over long timescales. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK'.

scholarly journals Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of facebook data

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry E. R. Shepherd ◽  
Florence S. Atherden ◽  
Ho Man Theophilus Chan ◽  
Alexandra Loveridge ◽  
Andrew J. Tatem
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Population Mobility ◽  
International Mobility ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how these policies impacted travel patterns over time and at different spatial scales is important for designing effective strategies, future pandemic planning and in providing broader insights on the population geography of the country. Crowd level data on mobile phone usage can be used as a proxy for population mobility patterns and provide a way of quantifying in near-real time the impact of social distancing measures on changes in mobility. Methods Here we explore patterns of change in densities, domestic and international flows and co-location of Facebook users in the UK from March 2020 to March 2021. Results We find substantial heterogeneities across time and region, with large changes observed compared to pre-pademic patterns. The impacts of periods of lockdown on distances travelled and flow volumes are evident, with each showing variations, but some significant reductions in co-location rates. Clear differences in multiple metrics of mobility are seen in central London compared to the rest of the UK, with each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland showing significant deviations from England at times. Moreover, the impacts of rapid changes in rules on international travel to and from the UK are seen in substantial fluctuations in traveller volumes by destination. Conclusions While questions remain about the representativeness of the Facebook data, previous studies have shown strong correspondence with census-based data and alternative mobility measures, suggesting that findings here are valuable for guiding strategies.

Beyond Pro-life and Pro-choice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Amery
Keyword(s):  
Abortion Debate ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Medical Associations ◽  
Sex Selective Abortion ◽  
Abortion Access ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

A common misunderstanding of the Abortion Act 1967 is that it granted women the ‘right’ to access abortion. In reality, there is no such thing; the current provision of abortion in the United Kingdom rests on a system in which doctors, not women, are the arbiters of abortion access. In recent years, calls for the full decriminalisation of abortion have been given a vigour not seen before. For the first time, MPs and medical associations have moved to back decriminalisation, in line with the demands of pro-choice campaigners across the UK. But at the same time, opponents are mobilising to undermine public faith in both the Abortion Act and abortion providers. In doing so, they have tended to set aside the classic ‘right to life’ arguments, instead focusing on issues such as sex-selective abortion and disability rights. This book makes sense of today’s changed landscape of abortion debate by tracing the evolution of political and parliamentary discourse on abortion from the passage of the Abortion Act in the 1960s to the present. It makes the case that to understand contemporary abortion politics, it is necessary to move beyond a conceptualisation of the debate as characterised by ‘pro-choice’ versus ‘pro-life’.

Confessions of a Hindu-Catholic Artist

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-185
Author(s):  
Caroline Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Age ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
New Public ◽  
Public Work ◽  
Inner World ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

AbstractDuring my first twelve years in India I studied Hindu art and philosophy, encountering "inculturated" Catholic Christianity for the first time. When I returned to the United Kingdom, I was struck by a manifest separation between the dry, orderly church, and the imaginative world of "New Age" networks such as Dances of Universal Peace. In 1999 I received a major commission to re-design a church in Wales. This opening allowed me to use art as a means to bring some of the insights gained in India into a Western Christian context. After this public work, I made a series of personal pictures that depicted the healing and empowering effect of the new public images (archetypes) on my inner world. I then tried to connect the work in the church to liturgy but found no opening in the UK. In 2003, I returned to India to the Fireflies Intercultural Centre in Bangalore. There I found a "laboratory of the spirit" that provided the right conditions for serious religious experimentation. In 2007, I found a way to express the vision of the artwork in the Welsh church via an embodied liturgy. Using masks representing the Elements, I worked with an Indian Catholic priest to create a cosmic Easter Triduum.

scholarly journals Who or what has agency in the discussion of antimicrobial resistance in UK news media (2010–2015)? A transitivity analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Curtis Collins ◽  
Rusi Jaspal ◽  
Brigitte Nerlich
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Control Research ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Research Councils

The increase in infections resistant to the existing antimicrobial medicines has become a topic of concern for health professionals, policy makers and publics across the globe; however, among the public there is a sense that this is an issue beyond their control. Research has shown that the news media can have a significant role to play in the public’s understanding of science and medicine. In this article, we respond to a call by research councils in the United Kingdom to study antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance as a social phenomenon by providing a linguistic analysis of reporting on this issue in the UK press. We combine transitivity analysis with a social representations framework to determine who and what the social actors are in discussions of antimicrobial resistance in the UK press (2010–2015), as well as which of those social actors are characterised as having agency in the processes around antimicrobial resistance. Findings show that antibiotics and the infections they are designed to treat are instilled with agency, that there is a tension between allocating responsibility to either doctors-as-prescribers or patients-as-users and collectivisation of the general public as an unspecified ‘we’: marginalising livestock farming and pharmaceutical industry responsibilities.

‘Blowback’ for Britain?: Blair, Bush, and the war in Iraq

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAROLINE KENNEDY-PIPE ◽  
RHIANNON VICKERS
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Suicide Bombers ◽  
Domestic Security ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Saddam Hussein ◽  
War In Iraq ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

ABSTRACTAs debate continues over the conduct, the legality and the morality of the war in Iraq, this article addresses how and why Prime Minister Blair decided on the British road to war in Iraq. The article argues that Tony Blair was working within a mindset at both the domestic and international levels that meant he was predisposed to use military force against Iraq and indeed against other perceived threats to the West. His mindset arose, we will argue, through fear rather than arrogance, through the experiences of the past two decades as much as contemporary events, and this meant that he systematically over-estimated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. We postulate that Blair was not pressured into invading Iraq by President Bush. Rather, he believed that it was the right path for Britain to take, and that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was actually the logical outcome of the ‘Doctrine of the International Community’ outlined in his Chicago speech in 1999. We go on to make the claim that by concentrating on supporting the United States in its grand strategy, Tony Blair misunderstood the pattern of politics at home and perhaps more seriously of the ‘threat’ to the domestic security of the United Kingdom. This was not a danger from Iraqi WMD or even from ‘foreign’ terrorists as had happened on 9/11 but from home-grown suicide bombers, some of whom claimed to be inspired by opposition to Blair’s wars. This was the blowback that mattered – and will continue to do so – for the UK.

scholarly journals After the Honeymoon: The Uneasy Marriage of Human Rights and the Environment Under the European Convention on Human Rights and in UK Law Under the Human Rights Act 1998

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 317-368
Author(s):  
Karen Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Domestic Law

The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) (ECHR) regime has, in the absence of specific coverage of environmental rights, developed a “creative” approach in its jurisprudence in this area, pressing a variety of other rights, notably: Article 6 (the right to a fair hearing); Article 8 (the right to privacy and family life); and Article 1 to the First Protocol of the ECHR (the right to enjoyment of property) into service. This creativity has achieved much in according indirect protection to individuals in this regard, but has also placed additional pressure on the already congested Convention system. The entry into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) made long-held rights under the ECHR directly accessible in domestic law in the United Kingdom. This naturally spawned a wave of litigation. One of the most prominently litigated areas concerned the pursuit of a variety of environment-based rights claims. In the intervening decade, the application of the ECHR to environmental claims in the UK courts has generated somewhat mixed results. This is in part a result of the “patchwork” approach that has developed toward environmental claims within the Convention regime itself, but it is also a product of the nature of the relationship between the ECHR and domestic law and the content and ethos of both regimes. This article will conclude by briefly considering the on-going role of the ECHR regime in environmental cases in light of subsequent developments in this area of law, notably under the Aarhus Convention.

scholarly journals Transformation of the Private/Public Divide in the Times of Covid-19: How Economydriven Policies Are Reshaping the Concept of Social/Physical Distancing in Serbia

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-135
Author(s):  
Ivana Stepanović
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Work Environments ◽  
Remote Work ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Times ◽  
Over Time

The evolution of social/physical distancing narratives throughout the COVID19 pandemic has left the concept itself ambiguous and vague while cutting through the borderlines between private and public. In the case of Serbia, economy-driven policies have shifted the focus from isolation, solitude and remote work during the first and the only lockdown towards the idea of physical distance in public spaces and work environments. This paper aims to analyse how social distancing narratives in Serbia were construed over time through governmental policies as well as companies’ regulations, and how they redefined the concept of privacy during the pandemic.

scholarly journals Social Representations of the Guarda Nacional Republicana Militaries. Comparative Study: Territorial Commands of Évora, and Setúbal

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Class ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Strategic Goal

This paper gains a better understanding of the relation between Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) officers and citizens from Évora and Setúbal districts. Currently, boost the relationship between militaries and the population it´s a strategic goal of Guarda Nacional Republicana, namely work to convey a credible and professional image, contrasting with the social representations and old stereotypes that persist in haunting the institution's image from the times of the Estado Novo. In fact, through literature review, surveys and interviews we were able to understand how the social representations of Guarda Nacional Republicana militaries have evolved since the beginning of the 21st century in the districts mentioned above, that is, investigate the opinion and representation of the society about the militaries by carrying out a comparative study. As main conclusions, we point out that the social representation of Guarda Nacional Republicana officers have evolved quite positively since the beginning of the 21st century to the present day, leading us to conclude also that the old stereotype (strongly negative for the image of the military) is almost completely depleted. The study’s conclusions also point towards the importance of culture and values, age, ethnicity, and place of residence of the citizens have in relationship and opinion with this professional class.

‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave’: How tax linkages shape responsiveness in the United Kingdom and France

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-290
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Truchlewski
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Fiscal Austerity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Government Responsiveness ◽  
Partisan Competition ◽  
Spending Cuts

What determines government responsiveness during fiscal austerity? Comparing the United Kingdom (UK) and France between 1975 and 2015 and using narrative accounts of austerity episodes, I argue that tax linkages (defined as the nature of dominant taxes, their governance and their dilemmas) shape partisan competition and fiscal responsiveness. I show how, despite comparable conditions, the UK and France implemented austerity simultaneously but opted for divergent types of fiscal responsiveness. In the UK, the right has been advantaged by centralized and weak tax linkages, which acted as a break on tax hikes and favoured spending cuts. In France, the left benefited from decentralized and strong tax linkages, which helped to increase taxes and made it hard to cut spending.

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