Evolution of a pandemic: Risk and Sense-making processes during the Covid-19 crisis
The Covid-19 pandemic has put governments, societies, and people under massive strain. Italy had some of the highest infection and death rates in Europe and was the first on the continent to implement drastic measures of virus containment. The Italian population had to adapt to these extraordinary circumstances quickly, and the measures introduced resulted in great hardship. I argue that risk was the major driver of this pandemic and shaped approaches to it and experiences of it globally and locally.
Using an ethnographic approach this work focuses on people´s personal experiences of the crisis in the Italian region of South-Tyrol. I conducted 19 in-depth interviews with people during the isolation period in Italy. I was also in isolation in South-Tyrol myself and conducted autoethnographic research intending to explore how people perceived risks and how they made sense of the pandemic. I utilize theoretical perspectives on risk from Ulrick Beck, Mary Douglas, and Michel Foucault, analyzing people´s risk perceptions on a macro and micro level, including current global developments, and cultural and symbolic implications for people´s risk perceptions. I also outline the evolution of the pandemic and the processes which facilitated the drastic societal and cultural changes which have occurred throughout this crisis.
At the beginning of chapter one and six to eight, I wrote about my experiences and impressions of the pandemic. These parts are written in italic. The pictures used in this work are kindly provided by the photographer Othmar Seehauser who documented the crisis in Italy, and especially in South-Tyrol with his camera. The descriptions of the photos include just essential information to leave room for interpretations.
Evolution of a pandemic: Risk and Sense-making processes during the Covid-19 crisis
The Covid-19 pandemic has put governments, societies, and people under massive strain. Italy had some of the highest infection and death rates in Europe and was the first on the continent to implement drastic measures of virus containment. The Italian population had to adapt to these extraordinary circumstances quickly, and the measures introduced resulted in great hardship. I argue that risk was the major driver of this pandemic and shaped approaches to it and experiences of it globally and locally.
Using an ethnographic approach this work focuses on people´s personal experiences of the crisis in the Italian region of South-Tyrol. I conducted 19 in-depth interviews with people during the isolation period in Italy. I was also in isolation in South-Tyrol myself and conducted autoethnographic research intending to explore how people perceived risks and how they made sense of the pandemic. I utilize theoretical perspectives on risk from Ulrick Beck, Mary Douglas, and Michel Foucault, analyzing people´s risk perceptions on a macro and micro level, including current global developments, and cultural and symbolic implications for people´s risk perceptions. I also outline the evolution of the pandemic and the processes which facilitated the drastic societal and cultural changes which have occurred throughout this crisis.
At the beginning of chapter one and six to eight, I wrote about my experiences and impressions of the pandemic. These parts are written in italic. The pictures used in this work are kindly provided by the photographer Othmar Seehauser who documented the crisis in Italy, and especially in South-Tyrol with his camera. The descriptions of the photos include just essential information to leave room for interpretations.
