MUERTE COLECTIVA Y COVID-19: APUNTES PARA EL DEBATE.

The effects of the pandemic have plunged Spanish society in a situation of collective death not experienced for decades. In addition to the saturation of medical services, excess mortality also caused a situation of collapse in funeral services. The impossibility of carrying out funeral ceremonies, or the restriction of attendance, has placed an additional emotional burden on families who have had to suspend their mourning. In this article, we will apply Gaëlle Clavandier’s notion of “collective death” to analyse the commemorative actions carried out by public administrations, paying tribute to the victims of the pandemic.

TRABAJAR EN TIEMPOS DE COVID. FRICCIONES DE LO ESENCIAL EN LA PRODUCCIÓN ALIMENTARIA. EL CASO DE LOS FRUTOS ROJOS EN LA PROVINCIA DE HUELVA.

The pandemic caused by Covid-19 is generating a state of emergency in which, for the first time, a series of professions and professionals are considered key workers. This is the case of the food sector and the different people and spaces it encompasses. In Andalusia, the declaration of lockdown coincided with one of the agricultural campaigns that best illustrates the functioning of the agri-food industry today: berry growing season. This article shows how the classification of this work as essential by the Government during the first period of lockdown did not translate into appropriate improvements in the socio-labor conditions of workers in this sector. Following a qualitative ethnographic methodology based on in-depth interviews with agricultural workers, the article analyzes the contrasts that emerged between the classification of this activity as essential and the real circumstances that prevailed during the work carried out.

COVID-19, ENTRE LO COTIDIANO Y EL ACONTECIMIENTO: UNA INTERPRETACIÓN DESDE LA FILOSOFÍA DE ZIZEK.

The text is rooted in the decomposition of the expression “everyday life” into factors through the different analyses carried out. The result is that behind the term “everyday life” there is a dialectic tension between “the everyday” and “the event”. The Covid-19 epidemic can be classified as an event and has meant the irruption of “The Real” into the symbolic coordinates of our Western and European society. This eruption has caused a trauma that forces us to wait for the consequence of the reinvention of the past and the reinterpretation of everyday life.

LA REPRESENTACIÓN MEDIÁTICA DE LAS MIGRACIONES EN LA PRENSA ESPAÑOLA DURANTE LA PANDEMIA.

This text analyzes the treatment of migration in the Spanish press – particularly in El País and El Mundo – during the first few months of the pandemic, focusing specifically on the arrival of undocumented migrants. The study investigates the terminology used to refer to these people, the ways in which these social events are related and, in general, the type of images and discourses projected. The methodology used is critical analysis of the discourse presented in the aforementioned national newspapers, which have high readership figures, paying close attention to matters of otherness, identity, and construction of difference. Articles from the local press have also been analyzed, due to the low number of searches located in the major newspapers considered in this study. The analysis shows that, even though undocumented migration is still conceptualized as a problem, discourses are also being generated portraying the immigrant as a victim, especially because their situation highlights the limitations and inconsistencies of the State. The crisis experienced due to Covid-19 also turns foreigners into a resource and immigration into an opportunity, in a context in which the pandemic is thought of as a time to reconfigure previous problems.

¿ESTÉTICAS HABITACIONALES DE LA EMERGENCIA?: UNA REFLEXIÓN SOBRE LAS CASAS EN ARGENTINA EN TIEMPOS DE COVID-19.

This paper proposes the notion of housing aesthethics of emergency to highlight the way in which people develop material tactics of certainty through modifying their homes in times of crisis, in this case, related to the Covid-19 virus. To this end, I present some vignettes of my own ethnographic research conducted in the Municipality of Morón (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and references from social anthropology —and beyond— to articulate reflections on housing and the future. Thereby I introduce questions about people’s daily changes and their practical translations. Specifically, how they find certainty ‘in the provisional’, composing specific domestic landscapes. This essay seeks to enhance understanding of how aesthetic production —understood in broader terms— constitutes a mode of living in times of crisis.

POLITIZACIÓN DEL HABITAR EN LA CIUDAD DE BARCELONA: PRÁCTICAS COTIDIANAS MIGRANTES FRENTE AL COVID-19.

This article examines the “everyday practices” of the immigrant population of Barcelona in relation to the Covid-19 context during the first few months after the Spanish government declared a State of Emergency (Real Decreto 463/2020, March 14). The first section sets out the theoretical and methodological approach followed along with statistical information about the study population. It then goes on to investigate the “cultural practices” of the Red de Cuidados Antirracista, a network set up to help and support vulnerable migrants who live in Barcelona, also offering a brief discussion of other cases. Finally, it emphasizes the special relevance of everyday life in the social organization processes activated by migrants to cope with the pandemic, in particular how everyday life is expressed within specific practices in the city and the urban space, configuring a particular politicization of habitation.

TELETRABAJO Y AMPLIFICACIÓN DE LA DESIGUALDAD EN LA SOCIEDAD POST-PANDEMIA ESPAÑOLA.

Although teleworking existed before the pandemic, its emergence and large-scale implementation suggest a paradigm shift in the world of work. While the reception of teleworking has been optimistic in general, its sudden introduction reveals a series of underlying structural inequalities, between manual workers and cognitive workers, between European Union member countries, geographic territories, business sectors, job qualification, age, ethnicity, and class. Such structural inequality, amplified by teleworking, presents significant challenges for work and society in the future of postCovid society. The text draws on data extracted from a survey administered to 66 teleworkers during lockdown; on comparative data collected from official reports, and the theoretical literature on the evolution of cognitive capitalism and the emergence of remote work.