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Angaben zum Inhalt: „A polarization pandemic? Political polarization has been identified as a key societal risk of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While various actors have expressed concern about extreme single-issue opinions, mass polarization may be characterized better as increasing association between various opinions. This could lead to deepening cleavages as new issues arise. We thus describe opinions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic relative to pre-existing mass opinion structures. We review the science on polarization, ultimately focusing on the Netherlands specifically. Using survey data of Dutch social media users (N = 216), we find that opinion clustering on general political issues is loose, and that these clusters do not uniformly predict attitudes towards measures to combat consequences of COVID-19. Nevertheless, the found clusters are better predictors than ideological identification. These results stress the importance of conceptualizing polarization as multi-attitudinal clustering rather than as unidimensional opinion difference.“

Angaben zum Inhalt: „Are we in this together? Changes in anti-immigrant sentiments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic is posing a pathogen or even existential threat to people all across the globe. According to traditional literature, threat perceptions induce anti-immigrant sentiments, as ingroup identity and self-interest are strengthened at the expense of the outgroup. In this manuscript, we study whether the COVID-19 pandemic, as a universal and relatively novel threat, increases anti-immigrant sentiments akin to responses to realistic and symbolic threats frequently described in the literature. We also look at whether such responses are expressed more strongly among specific groups in Dutch society. To do so, we use unique longitudinal panel data based on the European Values Study 2017, representative of the Netherlands, with a repeated measure in May 2020, during the national lockdown. Based on structural equation modeling, we demonstrate that anti-immigrant sentiments have not increased due to (perceived threat of) the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, negative opinions towards immigrants decreased between 2017 and 2020 in the Netherlands, for which we provide alternative explanations. Although some subgroups do experience more threat than others due to the coronavirus, such as women, first generation immigrants, and the elderly, this does not lead to more negative feelings towards outgroups. Whether this is due to the fact that individuals feel pathogenically threatened by everyone, regardless of group membership, should be explored in future research.“

Angaben zum Inhalt: „Social capital as protection against the mental impact of COVID-19 The corona pandemic has a huge impact on the mental wellbeing of the Dutch population. This article, based on a large-scale internet survey (N = 22,696) on the social impact of COVID-19, firstly examines which social groups are most susceptible to the mental health impact of the virus. Secondly, we examine whether social capital provides protection against this impact. We find that the mental health impact of COVID-19 is considerable and that it increased over the course of 2020. Women, young people, respondents with low incomes and/or poor health experience relatively more fear and stress due to the virus. We do not find a difference between respondents with or without a migration background. Social capital (received support, trust in people and in institutions) has the expected effect: the more support and trust, the less fear and stress. There is a mediation effect. Older people, respondents with high incomes and/or good health experience less fear and stress, partly because they have more social capital. This is different for females. They would experience even more fear and stress, compared to men, were it not for the fact that they have more social capital. Hence we conclude that social capital indeed provides some protection against the negative mental health effects of COVID-19.“

Angaben zum Inhalt: „Tijdens het Kamerdebat over corona haalde SGP-leider Van der Staaij terecht Abraham Kuyper aan. Die sprak wijze woorden over de Spaanse griep, die nog steeds actueel zijn en tonen dat niet alles maakbaar is. Maar dat mag niet tot passiviteit leiden, integendeel. En ook daarmee kan Kuyper ons verder helpen.“

Abstract: „During the COVID-19 crisis a risk of ‘code black’ emerged in the Netherlands. Doctors mentioned that in case of code black, very senior citizens might not receive intensive care treatment for COVID-19 due to shortages. Sociologist Ulrich Beck argued that palpable risks lead to the creation of new networks of solidarity. In this article this assumption is investigated by analyzing the different storylines prevalent in the public discussion about ‘code black’. Initially, storylines showing sympathy with the plight of the elderly came to the fore. However, storylines brought forward by medical organizations eventually dominated, giving them the opportunity to determine health care policy to a large extent. Their sway over policymaking led to a distribution scheme of vaccines that was favourable for medical personnel, but unfavourable for the elderly. The discursive process on code black taken as a whole displayed a struggle over favourable risk positions, instead of the formation of risk solidarity.“

Angaben zum Inhalt: „COVID-19, as well as the measures set to stop the spread of the virus, strike urban life at its heart. Indeed, much of what makes urban life attractive thrives on the physical proximity of a diversity of people in densely populated built environments. It then comes as no surprise that the socio-spatial dynamics of this infectious disease have triggered a lively debate on the future of the city. In this chapter, by engaging with several voices in this public and academic debate, we focus on the question of whose city we are talking about when we refer to the post-COVID-19 city, focusing on the highly (sub)urbanized Flemish region and Brussels in Belgium. While there is plenty of evidence emerging that both COVID-19 and the COVID-19 measures, in particular the lockdown, hit the urban population very unequally and that it reproduces and strengthens certain urban inequalities, we argue that in the debate on urban life in the (post-)COVID-19 city a ‘white’ middle-class perspective is often dominant. As a result, the diversity of spatial needs and the varying degrees of spatial poverty are not sufficiently taken into account. We then move on to document the impact of COVID-19, and the measures to counter it, on precarious groups living in the city. Finally, we suggest a few socio-spatial lessons which could be drawn from the lockdown for a more equal post-COVID-19 city. The impact of the lockdown on urban life and the use of urban space was instantaneous. A remarkable feature of several early newspaper articles on COVID-19 and in Flemish cities and Brussels is its framing in terms of ‘urban flight’. In the articles, COVID-19 is framed as a potential new driver of urban flight and thus a threat to the renewed popularity of cities with (a part of) the middle class.“

Angaben zum Inhalt: „Opgelucht begaf ik me naar het Vaccinatiecentruum Koornmolen voor mijn prik. Verrast en enthousiast verliet ik het centrum. Mijn ervaring stond in schril contrast met de verwachtingen die ik koesterde op basis van de negatieve berichtgeving in de kranten over de vaccinatiecampagne. Als reactie hierop wou ik iets terugdoen om de inspanningen van de vrijwilligers van de vaccinatiecentra de wel verdiende aandacht te schenken en ze te danken en te eren voor alle inspanningen en het enthousiasme en de vriendelijkheid waarmee ze deze taken hebben opgepakt. Als gepassioneerd fotograaf weet ik dat foto’s vereeuwigen en dat een fotoboek als blijvende tastbare herinnering een belangrijke rol heeft. Ik stelde aan Michel Doomst voor om beeldmateriaal te maken en er een boek mee samen te stellen dat als eerbetoon en als dank aan de vrijwilligers zou worden opgedragen. Mijn voorstel kreeg snel gehoor. Dank zij Michel en zijn naaste medewerkers van het kernteam kreeg ik de kans hier concreet werk van te kunnen maken en het werd tevens een heel bijzondere persoonlijke levenservaring. Ik maakte sfeerbeelden van het centrum op onze Nationale Feestdag en kon in de praktijk beleven wat onze Vorst de dag voordien in zijn toespraak had benadrukt over zijn bewondering voor het werk van de vele vrijwilligers: “Onze kracht om op te veren door terug te gaan naar de essentie: onze menselijkheid”. De vrijwilligers portretteerde ik zonder masker om zo de blik te vangen die achter het doekje verborgen was gebleven voor de gevaccineerden. In een korte quote geven ze hun indrukken weer en wat hen bij zal blijven over hun periode in het vaccinatiecentrum. Ik hoop met deze beelden respect en dank aan alle vrijwilligers en medewerkers te betonen voor hun solidaire en enthousiaste inzet opdat wij allen terug een normaal sociaal leven zouden kunnen leiden. Een dikke merci! Rudy Boon“

Abstract: „Op zoek naar het antwoord op de vraag: wat kunnen we leren van het behandelen van klachten tijdens een pandemie, onderzocht de Rotterdamse ombudsman 127 klachten die hij ontving in de eerste zes maanden van de coronacrisis. Het onderzoek en de leerpunten worden beschreven in het rapport Klachtbehandeling in tijden van een pandemie.1 In dit artikel leest u de belangrijkste bevindingen.“