Nov 25, 2020 from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM (AEDT)
Panel Session Organizer:
Sanghamitra Nath
Is there a relation between the ‘new’ normal and social trust? From a sociological perspective, the pervasiveness of infection from corona virus has led to the spontaneous emergence of a new culture of fear. However, fear runs in society not only due to mass awareness of the notoriety of the virus but also due to political practices that overlook fundamental freedoms, inclusiveness and human rights while mitigating the bio-disaster. Measures meant to ensure public health safety has been used by ruling elites to consolidate more power and tighten control or surveillance over citizens. As a result, the ‘new’ normal becomes characterized by a crisis of legitimacy arising out of disillusionment with the political authority. Adjusting to the ‘new’ normal also prompts an adjustment in social trust. The new reality, therefore, brings about a re-configuration of social trust in political elites.
Governments across the world have implemented multitudinous programmes, policies and laws to control the rate of infection. Ideally, the methods and techniques to contain infection should take into consideration gender, ethnicity, class, caste, religious and socio-cultural concerns to guarantee non-discriminatory access to public healthcare and other essential services. Nevertheless, reports from many countries speak of the contrary. In countries like Australia and India, app-based technologies meant to establish contact tracing collects personal data of millions of users even as chances of data leak or breach of privacy and/ or misuse of personal data cannot be ruled out. Complaints of corruption in public offices are often in news which disadvantage ordinary citizens and increases vulnerability of the marginalised. Shutdown followed by phased re-opening of various sectors of the society makes checking accountability and transparency challenging. The ensuing social trust deficit in the ‘new’ normal affects durability of any legitimate government as well as citizen compliance to government guidelines on covid-19.
Associate Professor Grazyna Zajdow
Complexity, multiplicity, and upending the assumed discourses of social trust.
The assumptions and stated aims of the panel are that the Corona virus pandemic and the concomitant policies of governments have produced a crisis of legitmacy because of increased surveillance and the use of state power to undermine civil and individual rights. My initial responses early in the crisis would have been to agree to this proposition. But I would argue now, that, in Victoria at least, this is much more complex than first thought. Complexity and multiplicity, as Mol and Law (2002) write are about different orders that are dealt with at the same time, ‘coexistences at a single moment’. So the narrative of the Victorian situation means that modes of ordering and the different experiences of the population do not easily slide into a clear theoretical linearity.
From the failed surveillance technology of the Covid Safe app, to the police-secured lockdown of high rise public housing tenants, to the lockdown of 5 million people in Melbourne, consideration needs to be given to why the city’s population willingly (for the most part) agreed to the policies of the state. I will also consider that those who argued the costs of the lockdown were too great (as indeed some mental health practitioners have claimed) have been shown to be unsupported by most of the population. Indeed consideration might be given to a functionalist understanding of social cohesion in the face of an external threat- a proposition that is difficult for someone like myself to make.
Associate Professor Grazyna Zajdow
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Education
Deakin University,
Victoria.
Email:
grazyna.zajdow@deakin.edu.au
Louis Kriesberg
Louis Kriesberg
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Department of Sociology
Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
Email: lkriesbe@maxwell.syr.edu
Website: https://lkriesbe.expressions.syr.edu
Managing COVID-19 Impacts on Social Trust in the USA
Donald J. Trump’s administration demonstrated extraordinary incompetence and great corruption in confronting COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, that decreased trust in the federal government and social trust in general. What is surprising is that he and his government were as popular as they were. His bullying, ignorance, corruption, and divisiveness were evident before COVID-19 struck. That has to be understood by changes in American society that contributed to widespread distrust in the government and to social trust generally. Americans’ trust in government dropped in the 1960s and the1970s, then recovered some, only to fall again.
Most significantly, the Republican Party leaders, some conservative intellectuals, and the very rich attacked big government and government solutions and pointed to immigrants and other scapegoats to explain social problems. They exploited American libertarianism. Trump used these phenomena and added right-wing populist language to get nominated and elected president. Once in office, he fostered incivility, prejudice, and social distrust. The public, however, is not entirely passive. Trump and his enablers overreached. The public generally recognized that social trust had been declining and they desired more not less. That has bolstered resistance and opposition to Trumpism and lent support for greater civility, cooperation, and mutual respect.
Saikat Kumar Basu
Executive Research Director, Performance Seed, 2716 2nd Avenue North, Lethbridge AB T1H 0C2 Canada
Socio-political challenges of the new normal from a Canadian perspective
The COVID-19 global pandemic has transformed into one of the most significant incident impacting socio-political life and economy negatively across the planet. Like every other country, an under-prepared Canada has also suffered a massive blow from this pandemic to both her socio-political as well as economic platform of the nation. The nation has been struggling to flatten the curve which varies in nature across the provinces from West to East. A deep division of the society and political life has thus surfaced without a prior warning. Furthermore, the disruption in regular business due to repeated lockdowns and containment restrictions have undergone further deterioration in the sociology-political platform opening up a Pandora’s box that the political elite of the nation has been visibly struggling to resolve. Huge economic bail outs has been extended by the government. However, the logistics of the distribution network and the highly pressurized health care system is struggling to cater to the ordinary citizens flawlessly. Under these circumstances of the new normal, Canada faces an uphill struggle to take the nation forward with limited human and financial resources. Post COVID Canada will be a different nation with new challenges and priorities.
Keywords: pandemic, sociopaths-political challenge, Canada
Kallol Basu,
Advocate, High Court at Calcutta, India
Pandemic and Lack of Governance
A deliberation on whether the faith of the public on the government has eroded, due to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, should entail a discussion on the two National Health Bills which were introduced in the Parliament neither of which were ultimately promulgated or received Presidential assent. At present, India has no overarching health legislation that provides for pandemic response measures. The Government of India and the respective State Governments had largely relied upon two Acts, namely, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
When a nationwide lockdown was announced within four hours’ notice on 24 March 2020, lakhs of stranded workers tried to migrate from large cities to somehow return to their villages. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs prohibited all inter-State and inter-District movement of migrant workers, directing that they be brought back from wherever they might be, and detained in the nearest quarantine facilities “for a minimum period of 14 days as per standard health protocol”. This order threatened that the district magistrate and senior police functionaries would be held personally liable for the implementation of these draconian orders
Surprisingly, on 14th September, the government informed the Parliament that it had no data on the migrant workers including the number of deaths. Based on the various instances and actions of the Government, it bound to shake the confidence of the citizens of India.
Nancy Sebastian,
Sessional Lecturer, University of Newcastle (UON), Singapore
Public Trust amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore
Trust in public institutions is vital for governments’ ability to respond rapidly, secure public support and for planning and implementing an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 emergency. Government’s values (integrity/fairness/openness) and competence - its responsiveness and reliability in delivering public services and anticipating new needs -are strong predictors of public trust. To contain the economic and social downswings lashed out by the pandemic, the Singapore Government initially started with 3 budgets in less than 2 months to cope with the current crisis, followed by a partial lockdown (circuit breaker), then an extension of the lockdown, followed by a staggered re-opening of the economy. Amidst these measures taken by the government, public trust in authorities has definitely seen its ups and downs, especially with the previous government retaining its place by a rather tough fight, after an election held during COVID. The paper examines the various phases of public trust in authorities amidst the global pandemic. It explores how communicating the risk of pandemic and the measures taken by the government like advising, tracking, testing, stimulus packages, phased-re-opening can play a role in influencing trust and compliance. It examines how trust influences public behavior to address the pandemic and rebuild the social and economic life.
Alminda M. Fernandez, PhD
Rizal Memorial Colleges, Inc. Davao City, Philippines; almindafernandez5@gmail.com
PH COVID-19 CASES UNDER COMMUNITY QUARANTINE
Philippines surge a case fatality rate of 1.90 percent after a national lockdown of three months since March 19, 2020 and modified enhanced community quarantine for four months now. The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed a total of 380,729 cases, of which 42,462 are active and total of 7,221 deaths of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of October 31, 2020. DOH also reported 1,803 new cases and 36 new deaths due to COVID-19 with 606 new recoveries and 331,046 recoveries in total. The government has tested more than 3.4 million people and aims to test 10 million nearly a tenth of the population by next year.
Public schools reopened with virtual classes on Oct. 5, 2020 while face-to-face classes are still not allowed until a vaccine becomes available. Most businesses, including dine-in services, have been allowed to reopen since strict lockdown measures ended on Aug. 19, 2020 to support the economy, which fell into recession for the first time in 29 years in the second quarter. People must still wear masks, face shields and observe one-meter social distancing, while children, the elderly and pregnant women are urged to stay at home.
Keywords: Philippines, Lockdown, General Quarantine, Covid19, Pandemic
Miss. Atrayee Saha
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Muralidhar Girls’ Calcutta University
The paper is Atrayee's sole contribution. Any inquiry towards the paper should be directed at atrayee.dse@gmail.com.
Understanding ‘social trust’ and rights of Tribal people during pandemic in India
Abstract: 10.45 crore tribal people who reside in India are at stake as a result of persistent backwardness; economic dependency; inequality in education, medical facilities and nutritional status and existing stigma due to lack of implementable policies, since Independence. These tribal communities mostly dwell on the procurement and sale of forest produce for their sustenance and many others also work as migrant workers in the cities and distant states. The lockdown announcement due to COVID-19 and government-imposed restriction on movement in the forest regions, led to loss of livelihood for many tribal communities which are isolated from the urban areas. The distress was further intensified with approval of proposal by the government for introducing developmental projects in the forest regions inhabited by the tribal communities, thus affecting forest rights and tribal rights. With the help of secondary data and experience gathered through fieldwork Santhals in West Bengal, conducted before the pandemic, this paper tries to analyse the factors of persistent backwardness of the tribal communities and also with the help of news reports gathered from different parts of the country, the paper discusses the various ways in which the ‘social trust’ and rights of the tribal communities have been hindered during the pandemic.
Bio: Miss Atrayee Saha is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Muralidhar Girls’ Calcutta University and is in her final stage of completion of PhD at the Centre for Studies in Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Her research is mainly based on rural sociology, agrarian studies, caste and class relations in the rural economy and tribal education and development. She has conducted fieldwork in different states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal on the issues of agricultural development and agrarian relations in the rural economy. She has published in several journals like South Asia Research, Contemporary Voice of Dalit and in edited books like Encylcopedia of Gerontology and Aging and others.
Keywords: tribal rights, forest rights, pandemic, social trust, policies, inequality, stigma
Associate Professor Greg Martin
University of Sydney: greg.martin@sydney.edu.au
Effects on social trust of pandemic policing during the Covid-19 crisis
Biographical note: Greg Martin is Associate Professor of Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published widely in criminology, law and sociology, and is author of Understanding Social Movements (Routledge, 2015), Crime, Media and Culture (Routledge, 2019), and co-editor of Secrecy, Law and Society (Routledge, 2015). He is founding Editor of the book series, Emerald Studies in Activist Criminology, is an Associate Editor of Crime Media Culture, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Social Movement Studies and The Sociological Review.
Abstract: This paper focuses on political practices as they relate to state responses to the Covid-19 crisis via enhanced policing powers. In responding to rising infection rates of Covid-19 liberal democracies have sought to balance securing public health and safety, on the one hand, and fostering citizen responsibility, on the other. Arguably, this situation is analogous to state responses post-9/11 where civil liberties were eroded on the pretext of safeguarding national security. While many of the post-9/11 measures became permanent features of law enforcement and state surveillance encroaching upon individual rights and freedoms, it remains to be seen whether rights suspended during the coronavirus pandemic will endure. Certainly, when rates of coronavirus infection have increased, the state has relied upon police intervention – rather than citizen responsibility – to enforce social distancing rules and restrictions on gatherings. This paper looks at two aspects of “pandemic policing” – everyday policing and protest policing – to explore the effects on social trust not only in respect of citizen reactions to state institutions and state agents such as police, but also amongst the citizenry of liberal democracies, which has at various points during the pandemic adopted oppositional roles, ranging from “sovereign citizen” to “citizen cop”.