PESQUISA
| Research |
2020 | ATUAL
Contact Tracing Fake News: Ethnographic analysis of COVID-19 misinformation in three global communities at risk
Descrição: Misinformation, much like COVID-19, does not affect all communities equally. Evidence is mounting that inequality in COVID-19 risk and outcomes are falling along racial and socioeconomic lines (Yancy 2020). The ability to assess and access quality information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic may impact individual and community level behaviors, appropriate social distancing or hygiene related practices (Pennycook et al 2020; Singh et al 2020). Like other social determinants of health, we argue that access to quality information regarding COVID-19 is a key mechanism through which structural vulnerabilities are exacerbated. During the pandemic, accurate information has become one of the most important resources low-income communities have to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Increasingly, these communities have turned to social media as a means of gathering and disseminating public health information. Early work on the ?social life of information? (Brown and Duguid 2000) revealed that virtual worlds are deeply connected to non-digital social spaces of information exchange. While multiple recent studies have examined the spread and correlates of misinformation across social media networks, few have examined how individuals most at risk appraise, understand, and share information through their digital social ecologies (Kouzy et al. 2020; Pennycook et al. 2020, multiple additional examples in preprint). We propose here a comparative ethnographic research study of COVID-19 misinformation in three global communities at risk, but who differ in national approaches to COVID-19 mitigation: the favelas of São Paulo Brazil, the Latinx communities on the Southwest side of Chicago, and the rural borderlands of northwestern Guatemala. By ?contact tracing? the social life of misinformation, we hope to elucidate how social media use in vulnerable contexts can augment or buffer COVID-19 inequality in communities most at risk.
2020 | ATUAL
Implementation of COVID-19 related policies: Implications for household inequalities across five countries
Descrição: The uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a range of regulations designed to control the spread of infections. However, the economic and social consequences of such measures have differential impacts on vulnerable households already living in conditions of economic hardship and poor health. This research examines how social, economic, and health inequalities impact the capabilities of households to follow regulations that may be necessary to reduce the spread of infections. The project will explore how short-term household decision-making impacts long-term consequences for poverty, social marginality, and susceptibility to higher infection rates. The project contributes to understanding the social and culture factors that enable and inhibit compliance with regulations in the context of COVID-19; data and findings being disseminated to improve containment processes. This project also trains graduate students in collaborative work and in building a network of scholars across multiple sites that can strengthen research on responses to disaster management and implement research methods during periods of crises. Through a multi-site study of household decision-making under conditions of extreme uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 and associated containment regulations, the research assesses the role socioeconomic factors play in achieving compliance with social distancing and quarantine requirements. It evaluates how intra-household inequalities, changes in medical infrastructure, fears of stigma and surveillance, confidence in social support, and social networks influence decisions. Eighty households across ten different sites with contrasting sub-populations and differing religious, ethnic, and racial composition will be selected for analysis. By taking the unit of analysis to be the household rather than the individual, the project will uniquely contribute to the understanding of household dynamics and the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on household inequalities. The multi-site research design will be critical in investigating how models of containment which appear similar in theory might translate into very different modes of implementation in different social and political contexts.
2020 | ATUAL
Efeitos das políticas de isolamento e distanciamento social relacionadas ao COVID-19 na vida de famílias vulneráveis no Brasil
Descrição: A presente proposta de pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender os efeitos das políticas relacionadas ao COVID-19 na vida de famílias vulneráveis no Brasil. Consideramos que a recomendação de medidas como confinamentos e distanciamento social produzem efeitos, ainda não estudados, sobre populações em situação de pobreza, agravadas pela falta de infraestrutura (água, energia, saneamento básico) e pela presença de violência estatal e/ou do crime organizado. Buscaremos compreender como famílias brasileiras em situações específicas de vulnerabilidade social vem experienciando as medidas relacionadas ao COVID-19, indagando: em que medida a realidade socioeconômica dessas famílias permite que sejam plenamente conhecidas e cumpridas estratégias públicas como o confinamento e o distanciamento social? Como essas medidas impactam os diferentes perfis que compartilham a mesma unidade doméstica (homens, mulheres, empregados, desempregados, idosos, crianças, portadores de necessidades especiais)? As constantes mudanças nas determinações públicas - que ocorrem em função da imprevisibilidade da pandemia mas também em função da instabilidade das decisões do governo brasileiro - se refletem de que forma na adesão das pessoas às estratégias públicas de contenção da disseminação da doença? Através de aplicação sequenciada de surveys e da realização de entrevistas em profundidade por via remota com 15 famílias de diferentes cidades e regiões do Brasil, buscaremos responder a essas questões. Acreditamos que os resultados permitirão conhecer quais recursos as households vulneráveis vem acionando em face à nova realidade apresentada pela pandemia, bem como quais são as estratégias que podem ser adotadas para a garantia dos direitos sociais de households com esse perfil no Brasil.
2020 | 2021
Engineering food: infrastructure exclusion and 'last mile' delivery in Brazilian favelas
Brazilian favelas are vibrant spaces, where ‘mom and pop’ shops offer a variety of products. Yet, supposedly, these same neighbourhoods are also identified as ‘food deserts’ and ‘food swamps’, where the absence of affordable ‘healthy food’ options is accompanied by a profusion of cheaper ‘unhealthy’ alternatives. Motivated by this apparent contradiction, this project examines the supply chains and social networks that stand behind the availability, accessibility and consumption of fresh food in Brazilian favelas in two cities, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo. The "Engineering food: infrastructure exclusion and ‘last mile’ delivery in Brazilian favelas" project is supported by a British Academy grant, awarded to Professor Gareth Jones (Director, the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre), under the Urban Infrastructures of Well-Being Programme.