Collective Mourning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Neurosociology

The COVID-19 pandemic has had diverse effects on society worldwide, forcing social scientists to rethink, understand, and address the complexity of the current situation. One thing is certain: the coronavirus is here to stay, and the pandemic has radically transformed social dynamics and social events, regardless of the type of society or the level of development of the countries. COVID-19 has forced all societies to reflect on their priorities and how to achieve human well-being. This implies designing different strategies to overcome the challenges of social development. One of the critical social challenges of COVID-19 is that society as a whole is going through a process called ‘collective mourning,’ as all citizens have lost someone or something-from lives of loved ones to daily routines and ways of life; society is in deep mourning. We are confident that we will overcome this pandemic, thanks to vaccines, but the social effects of COVID-19 will not be resolved with vaccines. The objective of this article is to raise awareness on the importance of using an emerging sociological perspective (neurosociology) to cope with collective mourning so that the state can prepare to provide integrated responses.

Why Does Making Connections Through Resilience Indicators Matter?

The year 2015 saw the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement. These landmark UN agreements both characterise and present the opportunity for developing integrated responses and coherence to the challenges bridging development, humanitarian, climate and disaster risk reduction areas. This chapter will provide examples of experiences and best practices from the international arena that identify how approaches to SDGs, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Management (DRM), and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) are juxtaposed, and the policy instruments currently in place that address SDG, DRR and CCA activities and actions. The text will consider opportunities for developing a concept of resilience that integrates SDG, DRR and CCA frameworks in response to global challenges, thereby constituting a development continuum instead of a series of independent and isolated phenomena. It will also identify and characterise opportunities for synergies across the different domains for community and sector vulnerability at local, national and international scales through integrated reporting across agreements.

How can we govern large-scale Green infrastructure for multiple water security benefits?

Traditional, limited purpose grey infrastructure has failed to address the world's interrelated water challenges. Improving water security will increasingly require more integrated responses. This paper examines large-scale green infrastructure (LSGI), planned natural or hybrid systems that materially affect water security at the watershed scale, as one such response. This paper examines key challenges for governing and financing LSGI, which hinder its broader use. We report on four case studies located in the United States where LSGI is being employed to improve water security. Through analysis of these case studies and related literature, we identify three themes important for LSGI governance: cost sharing, performance monitoring, and legitimization. First, we hypothesize that formal cost sharing based on the multiple benefits LSGI provides could enable wider adoption, but find that in these examples cost sharing is limited and informal. Second, our research suggests that expanding performance monitoring to encompass key secondary benefits could help clarify how the benefits and burdens of a project are distributed across stakeholders, facilitate cost sharing, and enhance project legitimacy. Finally, LSGI will require further legitimization – developing a broader perception that LSGI is an appropriate alternative or complement to grey infrastructure – to develop as a viable contributor to water security.

Integrated domestic violence services: A case study in police/NGO co-location

Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, launched in 2010, has emphasised the need for integrated responses across government agencies, specialist domestic and family violence services and the justice system. This article presents an evaluation of an integrated, community-based domestic and family violence response service that uses a rare model of co-location in a police station, and assesses its suitability as a model service for the future. The evaluation reveals that there are many positive aspects of such co-location and the authors argue that this model should be more widely trialled in Australia.

Prosecution of Elder Neglect: A Close Examination of Cases From King County, Washington

Elder neglect is common and can have catastrophic consequences. Cases may benefit from integrated responses from multiple sectors. Little research exists describing prosecutorial involvement and its impact, but existing evidence suggests neglect is seldom criminally prosecuted. Our goal was to closely examine neglect prosecution in a jurisdiction that has been a leader in using prosecution to attempt to address it. We quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed legal case files of felony elder neglect prosecuted in King County, Washington from 2008-2011. 13 cases were prosecuted, with a total of 10 victims. 90% of victims were female, with a median age of 88. 90% were unable to ambulate, and 90% had dementia. Defendants were commonly the victim’s adult child (38%). 23% had previous criminal citations/convictions. 46% of cases occurred in an Adult Family Home. 15% of cases went to trial, and all trial cases ended in conviction of some charge. Themes identified included: (1) perpetrators were either professional caregivers receiving compensation or non-professional caregivers financially dependent on the victim, (2) victims were malnourished and severely injured at time of reporting, and (3) medical expert contribution is imperative given complexity of these cases. Victims were unable to participate in prosecution in any case. This research shows that these cases are seldom prosecuted, even in a jurisdiction focusing on this phenomenon, but highlights characteristics of cases and demonstrates they may be prosecuted without victim participation. Future research is needed to examine prosecution’s impact on elder neglect to better understand how it may be optimally used.

Ecological Sensing Through Taste and Chemosensation Mediates Inflammation: A Biological Anthropological Approach

ABSTRACT Ecological sensing and inflammation have evolved to ensure optima between organism survival and reproductive success in different and changing environments. At the molecular level, ecological sensing consists of many types of receptors located in different tissues that orchestrate integrated responses (immune, neuroendocrine systems) to external and internal stimuli. This review describes emerging data on taste and chemosensory receptors, proposing them as broad ecological sensors and providing evidence that taste perception is shaped not only according to sense epitopes from nutrients but also in response to highly diverse external and internal stimuli. We apply a biological anthropological approach to examine how ecological sensing has been shaped by these stimuli through human evolution for complex interkingdom communication between a host and pathological and symbiotic bacteria, focusing on population-specific genetic diversity. We then focus on how these sensory receptors play a major role in inflammatory processes that form the basis of many modern common metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and aging. The impacts of human niche construction and cultural evolution in shaping environments are described with emphasis on consequent biological responsiveness.