COVID-19 in everyday life: Contextualizing the pandemic

Abstract

This paper provides an overview and findings of the research on the social aspects of COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia. We aimed to investigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on everyday life. The general hypothesis was that it contributed to changes in common rituals and routines, especially in the areas we focused on: family and housework, trust, the Internet use, and food practices. The study involved an online survey on the sample of 685 respondents, adult citizens of the Republic of Serbia. The main criterion for the selection of respondents was their legal age. The research was conducted during April 2020. We present and discuss the findings, give preliminary conclusions, and contextualize them within the current studies on the COVID-19 outbreak. The general research hypothesis has only been partially confirmed. Our findings suggest that the pandemic outbreak has disrupted people?s habitual established practices and strategies for managing daily life in the sense of either intensification or the absence of certain routines.

Family practices and time during the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia

“…The importance of food in everyday life in Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic has also been detected by another study (Ristić, Pajvančić-Cizelj and Čikić, 2020). See also Tomanović, 2021.…”

“…The division of domestic responsibilities mostly tracked traditional gender roles, which means that most of the additional work fell to women who, in addition to their existing domestic duties, also took on fresh household tasks, care for the elderly and looking after children and their schooling. Nevertheless, greater participation by men in domestic duties, particularly childcare, was observed -especially among more highly educated men living in urban centres (SeConS, 2020;Ristić et al, 2020;Stanojević, 2021). Research in other countries shows that the pandemic has not affected everyone equally (Fisher et al, 2020) and in Serbia those on the margins of society -from disadvantaged backgrounds, with irregular incomes or in unstable employment -were also exposed to greater health and financial risks and were less able to establish a healthy work-life balance (SeConS, 2020;Stanojević, 2021).…”

Промене у коришћењу јавних и приватних простора у Београду током пандемије Covid-19

“…У контексту наведених налаза, на значају добија суседство, у смислу услова које пружа (терасе, баште, зелене површине, паркови, игралишта) за боравак и дружење напољу и као арена практичне размене добара и информација, на шта указује и налаз да су суседи (поред лекара и пријатеља) издвојени као актери у које грађани Србије имају највише поверења током пандемије covidа 19 (Ristić, Pajvančić Cizelj, Čikić 2020) С једне стране, то потврђује да суседство као социјална арена у савременом друштву не супротставља социјалну кохезивност и повлачење у приватност (Tonkiss, 2005). С друге стране, указује и на неискоришћени подржавајући потенцијал суседства током пандемије јер су заједнички простори (терасе, терени, зелене површине) адекватни за боравак и социјалне контакте у епидемиолошким условима 12 објективна претпоставка да се забележени пораст опште солидарности за време пандемије у Србији (Павловић & Петровић, 2020) искаже и на нивоу суседства у великом граду.…”

The epidemic as a ‘regulator’ of interpersonal relationships: The impact of ‘combined’ schooling on the relationship among primary school students

“…Актуелна пандемија изазвана вирусом SARS-CoV-2 погодила је готово све сегменте друштвеног живота и одразила се како на понашање појединаца у свакодневним активностима (Ristić, Pajvančić-Cizelj & Cikić 2020;Haleem, Javaid & Vaishya 2020;Žikić, Stajić & Pišev 2020а;Žikić, Stajić & Pišev 2020b;Forić 2020;и др. ), тако и на природу социјалне интеракције (Calbi et al 2021).…”