Dossier COVID

Research and practices to learn how to reach a sustainable and healthy economic and social recovery post Covid-19, organised for each of the items listed below:
- Learning Cities
- Health and Medical Humanities
- Workplaces
- Justice and Penitentiary Systems
- Education and Training Systems
- Communication and Social Networks
- Big data, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
- Cultural Consumption
- Families, Associations and Friends
- Migrations
- History of Pandemics

 

WORKPLACES

The activities of the organizational boundary spanners during the Covid19 pandemic: the case of a profit organization
Concetta Tino, Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy)
Published: 21 August 2021 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/form-10173
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
In the first period of emergency from Covid19, only workplace organizations with essential production activities were able to continue to carry out their work. This required them the implementation of organizational strategies useful to contrast the risk of the pandemic and to protect production performance. The qualitative study conducted in a Lombard company, through semi-structured interviews, aimed at figures with different levels of responsibility, wanted to investigate: (i) which boundary spanning activities were used to manage the emergency? (ii) what factors allowed the effectiveness of the result in terms of contrasting the pandemic and guaranteeing the productivity (iii), what were the perceived effects on the company? Findings highlight the importance of the activities of organizational boundary spanners in emergency management and of those factors that, by supporting the socio-emotional dimension, have determined the organization’s productive advantage.

 

JUSTICE AND PENITENTIARY SYSTEMS

Challenges and Opportunities Raised by Covid-19 for the Judicial Systems in Europe
Claudia Cavicchioli, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)
Published: 10 December 2020 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/form-10086
(English)
ABSTRACT
This contribution examines and analyses the challenges and opportunities created by the spread of Covid-19 for the European justice systems, putting them in relation with educational needs that are arising. The Covid-19 crisis has acted as a stress test, as unexpected as it is energic, for the resilience of national systems and has shed light on the lack or delay in the digitalisation of justice systems, whereas throughout Europe, due to the limited availability of the national systems, recourse to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms has increased. The adjustments that have been made necessary to deal with the period of Covid-19 could radically and permanently change the way justice will be rendered in the post-pandemic world, also creating an opportunity for evolution and modernisation. The need to draw on shared best practices for the development of new protocols to ensure an effective functioning of the justice system must be balanced with the respect of fundamental rights such as access to justice and right to a fair trial. To this end, all stakeholders in the judiciary face a steep learning curve for developing new skills necessary to actively and consciously take part in the paradigm shift that justice is encountering.

 

University teaching in prison in the university penitentiary system of Sassari: practices, research and developments during the pandemic
Luisa Pandolfi, Emmanuele Farris, Università degli Studi di Sassari (Italy)
Published: 22 August 2021 | DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.36253/form-10274
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
This paper derives from the activities of the University Penitentiary Center of the University of Sassari and aims to explore the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on university teaching in prison. The subject of penitentiary university teaching is innovative and relevant for educational research and brings into play different skills, professionals, services and institutions. The theoretical framework describes how the right to study in prison is declined on a methodological level. The field research carried out in Sardinia has tried to give the student's voice in prison and the point of view of educators on the educational and organizational impact on university study paths during the pandemic; it is a voice that returns the complexity of a difficult moment, but which also offers useful ideas and stimuli for a more aware restart of the limits and challenges to be faced, as well as good practices to be developed, particularly at the interface between different public institutions as the University and the Penitentiary Administration are..

 

Italian prison system facing coronavirus: between troubles and resilience
Carlotta Vignali, Università degli Studi di Pisa (Italy)
Published: 18 November 2020 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/form-8556
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
This contribution is an analysis on the consequences of the coronavirus spread in the Italian prison system, highlighting concerns and potential prospects of improvements. Like other extremely vulnerable contexts, prisons are affected by the spread of Covid-19, resulting however weaker in providing effective strategies to ensure prevention, health and safety. Due to structural flaws, unhealthy conditions and endemic shortfalls, penitentiaries see a high risk of an outbreak of the illness. The prison crumbling and chronic overcrowded state make social distancing impossible. In addition to this, the coronavirus impact exacerbates pre-existing difficulties of the prison system. In such a dramatic scenario, and in spite of the inadequate government response in providing efficient resources against the virus diffusion, some detention facilities seem to be resilient in fighting back the epidemic, adopting strategies and solutions which could be considered a valuable starting point towards a better way of conceiving punishment.

 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEMS

The work of the educator at the time of Covid-19. A study on the impact of the health emergency and the role of technologies
Cristina Gaggioli, Elena Gabbi, Maria Ranieri, Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy)
Published: 29 July 2021 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/form-10174
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light many problematic knots within the Italian welfare state. The scientific literature produced in recent months has focused heavily on the impact that the pandemic has had in various sectors, neglecting over the data on social-educational services. The present study questions the role that the figure of the educator has had in the pandemic period and the possible effects that his or her involvement has produced both within the services in which he or she works and at the level of professional identity. The study presented here therefore offers a glimpse of the impact of Covid-19 on social-educational services, focusing on the function of technology in the remodeling of services provided and on the role of the educator. The research highlights how, despite the challenges and the initial disorientation, technologies can be, even in the social-educational and care contexts, an important instrument of integration for the continuity of the educational relationship.

 

The sanitary emergency and language teachers’ training needs in Italy
Paolo Nitti, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria (Italy)
Published: 20 August 2021 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36253/form-10261
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
Language teaching represents one of the language sciences that can be regarded as applicative. The teaching of modern languages is a discipline that is intrinsically interconnected with other disciplines and, from the moment it was scientifically recognized on the epistemological level, it has been characterized by a keen interest and affinity towards the technologies. This essay showcases the results of a survey conducted on a sample of teachers on the effects of the pandemic on language teaching in Italy.

 

How to imagine an inclusive post-Covid university education
Antonella Valenti, Lorena Montesano, Alessandra M. Straniero, Università della Calabria (Italy)
Published: 19 March 2021 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/form-10656
(Italiano)
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to analyse the criticalities and strengths of distance learning provided during this period of health emergency, by analysing the opinions of university students with disabilities and SLD. Specifically, we present the results of an ad hoc questionnaire administered to the students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disability (SLD) enrolled at the University of Calabria. Through this, we aimed to provide important insights, to be taken into account in the future, especially in view of the re-arrangement of the University’s teaching activities. Furthermore, we intended to highlight how universal design in the educational field should constitute a widespread and systematic working method for the creation of truly inclusive learning and relationship environments, also at a distance.