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Most studies on the management of COVID-19 have analyzed the issue from the perspective of the central government, while only a small portion have focused on local institutions, especially in countries such as Italy that are characterized by a multilevel governance system. Our study focuses on Peccioli, which is a municipality of under 5,000 inhabitants in Tuscany. We will investigate the citizens’ perceptions of the various actions that were put in place by the local government of Peccioli to manage the emergency. We aim to understand the ranking of the priorities that municipalities are required to accomplish for their citizens. A survey of a representative sample of the local population has found that citizens’ evaluations of municipal initiatives are overall positive, but that culture (defined here as cultural initiatives and events) and funding (and culture before funding) are considered to be more important than services. In particular, cultural events played an important role in the citizens’ perceptions because they strengthened community resilience during the emergency. This result can inform public administrators, who in times of crisis tend to make the first investment cuts in culture. This study underscores the importance of understanding how to effectively reach all citizens.
</abstract>

Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics

Local government under stress: How a small village community has reacted to the COVID-19 emergency

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The aim of this paper is to present legal restrictions related to religious ceremonies during the Covid-19 pandemic, which are not currently in force in Poland but are being applied in selected European countries. The study examines the possible extent of their acceptance by believers in Poland, a country with persistently high levels of religious observance. It transpires that negative evaluations prevail in the case of the following restrictions: advanced registration for participation in religious services, the possibility of only vaccinated persons participating in services, and singing being prohibited. On the other hand, a more positive view was taken of designating specific places that can be occupied in the place of worship, and the requirement for all attendees to wear a mask (including priests and leaders of religious practices). The research revealed a general tendency for those who participate more frequently in religious practices to view restrictions more negatively.
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Restrictions on religious practices in selected European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic: A legal-sociological study from Poland’s experiences

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This article contemplates and proposes responsibilities towards places. Such responsibilities cannot be reduced to a mere sum of responsibilities towards humans and nature. Rather, they form a pathway to think about humans, non-humans, and nature in a way that brings to the surface their deep and place-based inter-connection. Coming from the perspective that a degrowth society is desirable, the article aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on degrowth transformations. To understand deeper how responsibilities towards places can be enacted, I rely on the philosophy of deep ecology and suggest that each firm can develop and manifest in its practices its own ecosophy. I conclude that contemplating responsibilities towards places can be a space where degrowth scholars and scholars of corporate social responsibility can meet in a mutually enriching dialogue.
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Responsibilities towards places in a degrowth society: how firms can become more responsible via embracing deep ecology

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Critical race theory interrogates how systemic inequities in higher education are reproduced through institutional cultures and everyday practices, which interact with material disparities in broader society. Actors positioned within these institutions can collude with or resist unjust systems, within their means. The discourse analysis that anchors this article explores how contractually-employed teaching assistants (henceforth simply Assistants) contribute to, or resist, injustice while working with students in the context of tutorials that directly topicalise systemic racism. Based on individual interviews with Assistants serving in a Department of English and Cultural Studies at a historically-white South African university where the contemporary student body predominantly identifies as black, I unpack the discursive practices through which Assistants implicate their own institutional embeddedness in students’ learning experiences. I hone this article on Assistants’ openness to vulnerability as they interrogate their own systemic embeddedness, and how they experiences themselves as becoming vulnerable to expectations from students.
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A critical race theoretic analysis of vulnerability among teaching assistants in a South Africa Department of English

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The article aims to contribute to the gentrification debate by proposing a conceptual apparatus attuned to the study of how the everyday lived experience of neighbourhood change can have consequences for wellbeing. Accordingly, the concept of affective atmosphere, grounded within the non-representational theory, is proposed to capture nuances’ affective impact within shifting socio-material assemblages of local environments. A literature review was conducted to examine the ways in which the concept of affective atmosphere enhances the understanding of how changes in the socio-material configurations of space affect the wellbeing of local communities. The proposed framework captures the affective strain of gentrification as emerging within the specificities of socio-material constellations of local environments. Moreover, the advantage of the proposed framework was identified in its capacity to link particular manifestations of gentrification-related violence to overarching regularities of affective capitalism. The article urges for increased sensitivity to nuances of neighbourhood change, posing a potential threat to wellbeing even at the early stages of gentrification. Due to the decision to prioritise thoroughness of analysis over scale, the limitation of this article is its restrictive scope of research.
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Affective atmospheres of gentrification: wellbeing amid neighbourhood change

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This contribution focuses on analysing political communication in Italy during the 2022 national elections, with particular attention to the TikTok platform, where prominent Italian political leaders have appeared. To this end, we used a combination of social analysis tools, including Fanpage Karma and Blogmeter Live Insight. The collected data were scrutinized using a multidisciplinary approach that combines Political Communication Theory and Media Analysis. The aim is to explore the role of pop culture in political communication and understand how this phenomenon influences political participation and users’ choices. Furthermore, the possible consequences of the growing popularity of pop political communication on political representation are examined, as well as whether this is a momentary or long-lasting phenomenon.
</abstract>

For better or for worse: politics marries pop culture (TikTok and the 2022 Italian elections)

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In this research, I will try to develop a study of the contemporary Philippines through a brief review of the bibliography and statistical data analysis. I aim to gather empirical evidence of the causes of extended poverty and unemployment in the country and the high levels of overseas Filipino workers. These social problems and the surge of authoritarianism in the figure of Rodrigo Duterte cannot be adequately explained without referring to the historical legacy of colonialism in the Philippines, the subordinated position of this country in the global division of labour and the structural changes fuelled by hegemonic globalization since the last decades of 20th century. Based on scientific research and official data, this article will critically analyse the historical, social, and economic causes of poverty and hardships affecting many Filipino citizens.
</abstract>

Left the caciques behind: a commentary about contradictions of migration and development in the Philippines

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 7 (2023): Issue 4 (December 2023)

Volume 7 (2023): Issue 3 (September 2023)

Volume 7 (2023): Issue 2 (June 2023)

Volume 7 (2023): Issue 1 (March 2023)

Volume 6 (2022): Issue 4 (December 2022)

Volume 6 (2022): Issue 3 (August 2022)

Society Register

Society Register is an international peer reviewed journal that publishes, in English, empirical, conceptual, and theoretical articles that make substantial contributions to the field in all areas of social sciences including sociology, economics, political science, psychology, cultural studies, education, and social policy.  The mission of the Society Register journal is to publish original works of interest to the disciplines of the social sciences in general, new theoretical approaches, empirical results of research that advance our understanding of fundamental social processes, and important methodological innovations. All areas of social sciences are welcome with special attention to sociology. ‘Registering’ societal change requires approaches that take into account the different research methodologies used by different social disciplines. That is why the Society Register focuses particularly on the critical dimension of research in the areas of sociology (society), economics (economy), political science (politics), pedagogy (education), and cultural studies (culture).  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.  