Societies, Volume 13, Issue 1 (January 2023) – 18 articles

Introduction: A bioterrorist attack is the intentional release of pathogenic micro-organisms, such as viruses, bacteria, or their toxins, with the aim of causing illness or death in people, animals, or plants. In this study, we investigated the knowledge and practices related to bioterrorism preparedness in Central Portugal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed with a convenience sample in the population of Aveiro, Central Portugal, to assess their knowledge about bioterrorism, self-perceived preparation to act in case of bioterrorism and pet owners’ preparation. An online validated questionnaire was completed by 198 participants from January to February 2020. Results: In this study, 46.0% of the respondents answered that they knew nothing about bioterrorism or had never heard about the possibility of bioterrorist attacks. In the case of an attack, 77.8% participants did not consider themselves prepared to act, and 62.1% did not know how to use personal protective equipment. More than half of the respondents (60.6%) were not familiar with the local emergency response system in response to catastrophes/bioterrorist attacks. Almost all respondents (95.6%) assigned high importance to drinking water and food for pets, but only 22.9% of respondents attributed high importance to pet carrier boxes, an item essential for cat evacuation. Conclusion: This is the first survey of this kind in Portugal concerning bioterrorism preparedness in citizens and animals. Results suggest that Portuguese knowledge is limited, and people have inadequate preparedness for a bioterrorist attack. These results reinforce the importance of further studies to better understand the existing gaps in knowledge of Portuguese citizens, strengthen the need to adopt the One Health concept in preparedness plans and emphasize the crucial role of health education in prevention. Full article

Tourism has been one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the side effects of the pandemic is the demand for safe and quiet spaces, giving rise to the search for a new lifestyle, “slow living”, which could represent an opportunity for cultural tourism. In this context, the main objective of this article is twofold: (i) to establish the relevance of cultural tourism for residents in Spain for the autonomous communities along the French Way of Saint James and (ii) to determine their behaviour on their institutional tourism promotion websites. For our analysis, we use equality of means tests and ANOVA (for data from 2002–2020), as well as measures of positioning, engagement, origin of the audience and access devices (for data from 2020–2021). The main conclusion is that the Way of St. James does not act as a driving force for cultural tourism, even though the websites of tourism promotion organisations have experienced a remarkable growth in their use. This article develops an original relation of cultural tourism through an analysis of the French Way of St. James in Spain and the web positioning of official tourism promotion organisations before and during COVID-19. Full article

This article presents interdisciplinary research on the social and technological aspects of interactions between older adults and the humanoid robot Pepper (SoftBank Robotics). Our case study is based on the regular meetings that are a part of an experimental intervention taking place at the Active Ageing Centre for older adults in Prague, run by the NGO Life 90. Through the methods of participant observation, unstructured interviews, analyses of video recordings from interventions with Pepper, and subsequent reflections on the “user” experience with the robot, we have unpacked the complexity of materiality and corporeality in older human–robot interactions (OHRI) in the context of age and gender. The project brings new applied knowledge, exploring OHRI using concepts relevant to gerotechnologies, informed by studies of materiality and ageing studies. Full article

Negative stereotypes of older people can have detrimental impacts on their mental health, hence better understanding of ageism is needed to combat ageism more effectively. Nevertheless, existing studies on ageism largely focus on the workplace, while relatively less is known about younger people’s generalizations of older people in everyday neighbourhood contexts. This study investigated young adults’ stereotypes of retired older people in the context of high-density residential neighbourhoods in Hong Kong, through 23 qualitative in-depth interviews. The findings counter the misconception that ageism is less prevalent in Asian societies, while uncovering young adults’ novel interpretations of traditional cultural norms of respect towards older people. The findings also reveal more complex intersections between ageism, classism, and prejudice towards worldview-dissimilar older people. These findings suggest the need to broaden the scope of ageism-reduction interventions, to tackle not only age-related prejudice but other forms of prejudice. Paying closer attention to intersectional forms of prejudice can also facilitate the design of more inclusive intergenerational programs and intergenerational public spaces, both locally and internationally. Full article

Background: The Norwegian government’s increased expectations that volunteering can be used as a means of integration and the scarce research regarding refugees’ experiences with volunteering is taken as the background for this study. Our purpose is to adopt a salutogenic perspective to investigate whether and how formal volunteering contributes to developing a sense of social inclusion and well-being among refugees in Norway. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 volunteers with refugee backgrounds in a semi-rural district in Norway. Stepwise deductive induction was used for analysis. Results: Three themes were identified as a result of the analysis: (1) feeling safer due to increased knowledge regarding cultures, values, and systems and achieving mutual acceptance; (2) feeling more confident when communicating in Norwegian and contributing to society, and (3) feeling more connected via social relations. Conclusions: Our study indicates that participation in volunteering may contribute to social inclusion and that the participants’ resources and volunteering experiences may have a health-promotive impact under certain conditions. Full article

Children today experience digital engagement from a young age, and information and communication technology (ICT) use impacts how the family, seen as a social–relational structure or network of two or more people, communicates and interacts in daily life. This review broadly encompasses how children and young people are vulnerable regarding digital technology, focusing on diverse aspects of the family. The scoping review includes a final corpus of 100 articles broadly focusing on the term ‘vulnerability’ as it relates to digital technology and the family. The themes identified originate from the articles and describe five domains of vulnerability: (1) extensive Internet use, (2) age and gender, (3) risky online behaviour, (4) social networking as a social lubricant, and (5) parental mediation and care. The studies identified lean heavily on quantitative studies measuring time, whilst depth and context are less visible. Despite a growing body of research, there is a lack of both qualitative studies and research examining the role of technology in the lives of children and young people and how family dynamics are affected in the digital age. Full article

Due to the pandemic (COVID-19), the education system in Spain was forced to close for three months, creating an unprecedented situation: improvised distance schooling. Family characteristics and their life situations with Information and Communication Technology use would be aspects to be studied as educational conditioning factors. This paper presents the ways in which a representative sample of families in the Valencian Community (Spain) assumed the education of their children during the lockdown. Mixed methods (quantitative -surveys-/qualitative -focus groups-) are used. Multivariate profiles are studied (k-means cluster) that summarise the life circumstances, represented by composite indicators resulting from the families’ responses to specific items describing their way of life and educational performance. Associated variables, such as demographic or life situation characteristics, are analyzed for each profile. Some gaps (described by indicators that synthesize the functioning of the families) are observed due to life circumstances that correspond not only to vulnerable groups but also to upper-middle-level families. Full article

Populism has been at the center of recent debates in political science and international relations scholarship. Recognized as a contested concept and framed as a new global phenomenon, populism emerged in the context of liberal democracies, where political actors inflate social antagonisms by putting the people against the elite. Facing a global health crisis where a sense of threat, uncertainty, and emergency has pushed normal politics into the realm of politics of crisis, populists have actively engaged in creating a spectacularization of failure—of science, institutions, experts, governments—vis-à-vis the new Coronavirus, and in creating doubts about and devaluing scientists, experts and governments. Issues such as mask mandates, lockdown measures, compulsory vaccination, medicine effectiveness, and vaccine certificates became politicized. That is, they have been taken from normal politics and made contingent and controversial in order to deepen already existing political divisions and polarization. Exploring the case of Germany and Brazil, we will show how populists tried to use the pandemic to forge divisions between the people and the elite (represented by scientists, health experts, and the press). This conceptual-empirical paper wishes to make a contribution to the debate on how populists brought scientific public health issues into their black-and-white, antagonistic vision of society and hence instrumentalized COVID-19 for their own political gain. Full article

This paper develops a baseline and definition for informal disaster diplomacy in order to fill in an identified gap in the existing research. The process adopted is a review of the concept of informality, the application of informality to diplomacy, and the application of informality to disasters and disaster science. The two applications of informality are then combined to outline an informal disaster diplomacy as a conceptual contribution to studies where processes of conflict, peace, and disasters interact. Adding informality into disaster diplomacy provides originality and significance as it has not hitherto been fully examined in this context. This exploration results in insights into disaster, peace, and conflict research through two main contributions. First, the paper recognises that informal disaster diplomacy has frequently been present in disaster diplomacy analyses, but has rarely been explicitly presented, accepted, described, theorised, or analysed. Second, by explaining the presence of and contributions from informality, the discussion assists in re-balancing much of disaster diplomacy research with depth from conflict research, peace research, international relations, and political science. Full article

Advocacy for assistive technology interventions is compatible with the capabilities approach but is insufficient for addressing the disadvantage experienced by people with disability. This paper reflects on equality as an objective of the capabilities approach arising from economics, and it summarises how assistive technology and accessibility are mechanisms for achieving equality in the contemporary legal context of international disability rights. Research and advocacy for assistive technology have failed to communicate a coherent set of actions for policy makers to adopt. Defined concepts and interventions are required to prioritise and coordinate action to support individuals with assistive technology in parallel with improving collective resources by improving accessibility. Radical change in economic paradigms and societal structures that drive poverty and disability may be required for the effective adoption of assistive technology and closure of capability gaps. Full article

Despite the impact that climate change is having on our planet and considering its consequences for future generations, much of the academic literature focuses on adolescent and adult perceptions, giving little relevance to children’s perceptions. Children’s voices have the potential to influence public opinion, which may in turn determine the direction of a new policy on the climate crisis. In this context, it is urgent that we understand how children perceive this problem. This quantitative study was based on the application of 245 questionnaires to children aged between 9 and 13 years old from five schools in north-eastern Portugal, more specifically in the region of Trás-os-Montes. We can say that this study was a convenience study because we delivered the surveys in the schools closest to the working area of the researchers. We used a questionnaire with 26 questions, 24 of which had closed responses (like the Likert type), one open response, and one with multiple choices. In this work, we conducted a descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, and prepared a database, using the statistical software IBM SPSS, which allowed us to conduct some statistical tests, selected according to variables. For the descriptive analysis, several parameters were used for the distribution of variables, namely, frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. We rejected the null hypothesis (H0) and assumed for the inferential analysis that the sample does not follow a normal distribution, considering the fulfillment of the necessary criteria for parametric tests and after performing the Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality test, whose null hypothesis (H0) is that data are normally distributed, and given that the p-value for the variables under study was p < 0.05. In this regard, non-parametric tests were used. The Mann–Whitney test was used to compare the degree of agreement with climate change statements as a function of the student’s gender and year of schooling, which is a non-parametric test suitable for comparing the distribution functions of an ordinal variable measured in two independent samples. The results show that most of the children expressed concern about the study’s potential problem, and (42%) said they are concerned about climate change. However, they show some doubts and a lack of knowledge about some of the themes, like (33.5%) cannot name only one consequence of climate change. We also found differences between the two study cycles, with children in the 6th grade having a higher average in their understanding of the phenomenon (p = 0.049), as well as the level of education of the parents being positively correlated with a more ecocentric posture, we can see this when we considering the variable parents. We also found that 46.6% of the students say that television is where they learn more about climate change. From the results obtained, we can open new paths for future research and contribute to the definition of policies and educational practices since the school has the responsibility to cooperate in the production of values, attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviors. Full article

Flourishing is defined as an optimal state of functioning in which individuals pursue their goals and aspirations. Hence, flourishing seems to be a protective factor for career transitions in adolescence. This study aimed to analyze the predicting role of self-esteem, courage, and the four career adaptability dimensions, i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, on flourishing. The sample consisted of 221 Italian adolescents attending the last year of middle school. The preliminary analyses showed gender differences in courage and flourishing, reporting females higher scores than males on both variables. The SEM path model showed that courage, self-esteem, and confidence predict flourishing, and suggested that confidence partially mediates the relationship between courage, self-esteem, and flourishing. Findings have also permitted us to draw practical implications for interventions in adolescence. Full article

The development of information technology, along with the high growth and diversification of consumer needs, has revolutionized the way in which business-to-consumer transactions occur. All this progress was boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic period in a different manner in each EU country, depending on different local aspects. The main goal of this paper is to determine the key characteristics of e-commerce in European Union countries in a pandemic context, based on Eurostat Digital Economy data for 2019–2020. Therefore, for an easier visualization, based on PCA, using 27 analyzed variables, new unique dimensions were revealed: 1. heavy online purchasers, 2. triggers for embracing digital purchasing, 3. perceived barriers against buying online (privacy concerns, security, or not having a card), 4. dynamics of online interaction with public authorities, and 5. enterprise online sharing. Moreover, clustering techniques set four groups of countries with different online commerce patterns that might require attention, according to their specificities, both from a government level and from a business perspective. Special attention is paid to Romania, which has one of the biggest e-commerce industries in Southeastern Europe, but with the share of e-commerce in total retail still quite low, despite this great increase. The models of other countries could be important in helping Romania to catch up with the most successful economies in terms of e-commerce. Full article

This article explores the evolution of the definition and the process of medicalization of sexuality during the second half of the 20th century. After a review and discussion of the notion of medicalization, the application of this notion to a few examples is discussed, including the emergence of sexuality, the demedicalization of homosexuality, the treatment of “sexual disorders”, the prevention of HIV infection, and the gender-affirmation pathways for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. The analysis of these situations—in the light of the notion of medicalization—allows us to better understand the multiple facets of this notion. In particular, we observe processes of medicalization and demedicalization, depathologization, and pharmacologization. The notion of medicalization of sexuality appears here as a useful concept for understanding the conceptualization and treatment of diversities in the field of sexuality and gender. Full article

Previous research has demonstrated that racism is a social determinant of health (SDOH), particularly for racialized minority newcomers residing in developed nations such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries. This paper will focus on racism as a SDOH for racialized newcomers in these countries. Racism is defined as “an organized system of privilege and bias that systematically disadvantages a group of people perceived to belong to a specific race”. Racism can be cultural, institutional, or individual. Berry’s model of acculturation describes ways in which racialized newcomers respond to their post-migration experiences, resulting in one of several modes of acculturation; these are integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. After examining the definition and description of racism, we argue that racism impacts newcomers at the site of acculturation; specifically, the paths they choose, or are forced to take in response to their settlement experiences. We posit that these acculturation pathways are in part, strategies that refugees use to cope with post-displacement stress and trauma. To support acculturation, which is primarily dependent on reducing the effects of cultural, institutional, and individual racism, health policymakers and practitioners are urged to acknowledge racism as a SDOH and to work to reduce its impact. Full article

Local knowledge on food heritage is an important asset of communities in Hindkush Mountains of Pakistan. Literature is scarce on recording local food knowledge (LFK) and the associated challenges; therefore, to partially fill this gap of knowledge, the current research study presents an overview of some of the prominent challenges that curb documenting local knowledge on food heritage among various communities in the region. Qualitative data were gathered through direct observations during ethnobotanical research work across the region. The current research reveals that the complex sociocultural and political circumstances, in one way or another, might be impacting the recording of the LFK in the study areas. For instance, I have found that the fragile security circumstances in the western belt of the country is one of the obstacles that do not fully allow researchers to get access to the local communities. The lack of educational understanding among the local communities, especially those who are living in rural areas, has been creating a gap of communication between researchers and the communities. It is worth mentioning that globalization and social change have also changed the perception of the people regarding the local food resources and attached local knowledge. In addition, the policy issues linked to social science research in the country also have an indirect effect on community-based research, which does not encourage researchers to explore meaningful research findings. Hence, to deal with all these challenges, in this article, I propose some possible solutions to protect the local food heritage and practically revitalize the local/traditional knowledge through future development programs, as this knowledge is very important for combating future food insecurity. Full article