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Article
Publication date: 12 December 2023

P.R. Suresh

This paper aims to determine the implications of Covid-19 on the livelihood of marine fishermen. It gives a concrete picture of how vulnerable communities like marine fishermen…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to determine the implications of Covid-19 on the livelihood of marine fishermen. It gives a concrete picture of how vulnerable communities like marine fishermen are affected due to the lockdown policies. The paper examines these communities' present status and the extent of vulnerability during the post-Covid period.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses an exploratory research design to find the solution to the research problem. 298 samples were collected and analysed within a sustainable livelihood theoretical framework. The scope of the study is limited to marine fishermen in Kerala, residing in six districts out of the nine coastal districts. The impact of the lockdown on income was analysed using paired t-test and results linked with the theory.

Findings

The study has done an empirical analysis for three periods: before lockdown, lockdown and after lockdown, to identify the impact of lockdown on marine fishermen. The study's significant findings are that these fishermen's livelihood is at risk during the post-lockdown period, and many families are moving into a “debt-trap”.

Research limitations/implications

Policymakers can develop appropriate policy strategies to enhance the livelihood assets of vulnerable communities to include them in a sustainable framework.

Originality/value

Only a few studies are highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable communities in India. The effects of climate change on the marine ecosystem are already endangering marine fisher folks' livelihoods. In this light, it is vital to study the extent of the impact of income shock on the livelihood assets of marine fishermen due to the lockdown policy implemented in the State to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0192

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Adan Silverio-Murillo, Jose Balmori de la Miyar and Lauren Hoehn-Velasco

Purpose: The evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence is mixed. Studies using hotline call services identify an increase on domestic violence…

Abstract

Purpose: The evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence is mixed. Studies using hotline call services identify an increase on domestic violence, while studies using police reports find a decrease. One limitation is that most of these studies came from diverse regions using different types of data sources. The purpose of this study is to use two separate data sources to study this question in the same region, and to contribute to the discussion for potential mechanisms that explain this mixed evidence.

Methodology: This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence in Mexico City. The authors use two separate data sources: hotline calls and official police reports. Our empirically strategy is based on a difference-in-differences methodology and an event-study design.

Findings: As a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown, hotline calls for psychological domestic violence increase by 17%, while police reports of domestic violence decrease by 22%. To reconcile these discrepancies between hotline calls and police reports, the authors consider several potential mechanisms. The authors find suggestive evidence that the increase in psychological domestic violence is related to financial stress. Further, the results of this study indicate that the reduction in police reports is related to women facing more barriers to report their abusive intimate partners during the lockdown.

Value: These results confirm that the variation observed in the existing literature is related to the type of data being used. The mixed evidence suggests that more women suffer from psychological domestic violence as captured by hotline calls, while women encounter more barriers to report their abusive husbands to the police as captured by the official police reports.

Details

Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-279-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 April 2023

Stella Bullo, Lexi Webster and Jasmine Hearn

This chapter aims to explore how emotional language construing experiences of UK COVID-19 lockdown in the present frames expectations for future behaviours and intended memories…

Abstract

This chapter aims to explore how emotional language construing experiences of UK COVID-19 lockdown in the present frames expectations for future behaviours and intended memories. We analyse 102 responses collected through an online narrative survey during the first lockdown in the United Kingdom. The survey asked participants to articulate ‘an image to remember lockdown by’. Taking a positive discourse analysis approach, using corpus linguistics and systemic functional linguistics tools, we challenge the primarily negative mainstream discourses of COVID-19 and lockdown experiences and explore how language choices evaluating different aspects of life in lockdown evoke emotion to construe a desired projected future. Findings indicate that respondents actively and selectively articulate primarily positive intended memories based on kinship peace and nature that contrast with normal life experiences. Such choices are framed within emotional states enacted through language choices. We argue that these projected memories act as a ‘time capsule’ whereby decisions to retain positive memories help to promote adaptive well-being in the face of potentially overwhelmingly negative circumstances.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions for a Post-Pandemic World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-324-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Gideon Fishman and Arye Rattner

Purpose – The study intends to determine the impact of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 on various categories of crime. It examines the issue of crime in Israel focusing on the…

Abstract

Purpose – The study intends to determine the impact of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 on various categories of crime. It examines the issue of crime in Israel focusing on the crime patterns that evolve separately among Jews and Arabs.

Methodology/Approach – Using statistical data received from the Israeli police, the authors examined crime rates during the lockdown periods, compared to the same period three years before.

Findings – The findings in this study are in line with other studies, meaning that the impact of lockdowns on crime during the pandemic, especially on violence and domestic violence, is not conclusive. As far as severe violence is concerned, in the first lockdown the impact was more pronounced. However, the subsequent lockdowns produced less dramatic outcomes. A close examination of the data implies that during the lockdowns, the oscillations of violence rates were more noticeable among the Arab population.

Originality/Value – The effect of the lockdowns corroborated much of the findings in previous studies done in other countries. The findings follow the theory of routine activity and shaw that when life returned to normal also the crime patters returned to the old patterns. Furthermore, it seems that many subsequent lockdowns lose their effectiveness as people find ways to avoid some of the restrictions. In addition, also when some effect was noticed, it certainly is not very dramatic.

Details

Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-279-2

Keywords

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged most countries, their societies, economies, organizations, and individual citizens. Focusing on both more and less successful country-specific initiatives to fight the pandemic and its multitude of related consequences, this chapter explores implications for leadership and effective action at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. As international management scholars and consultants, the authors document actions taken and their wide-ranging consequences in a diverse set of countries, including countries that have been more or less successful in fighting the pandemic, are geographically larger and smaller, are located in each region of the world, are economically advanced and economically developing, and that chose unique strategies versus strategies more similar to those of their neighbors. Cultural influences on leadership, strategy, and outcomes are described for 19 countries. Informed by a cross-cultural lens, the authors explore such urgent questions as: What is most important for leaders, scholars, and organizations to learn from critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What types of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How can we accelerate learning processes globally? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This chapter invites readers and authors alike to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges. It is not definitive; we are all still learning.

Details

Advances in Global Leadership
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-838-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 April 2023

Leila C. Kabigting, Maria Claret M. Ruane and Kristina C. Sayama

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns were implemented to achieve two goals: (1) to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and (2) to reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths. In this…

Abstract

Purpose

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns were implemented to achieve two goals: (1) to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and (2) to reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths. In this paper, the authors aim to look at empirical evidence on how effectively lockdowns achieved these goals among small island developing states (SIDS) and for one specific SIDS economy, Guam.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors reviewed existing studies to form two hypotheses: that lockdowns reduced cases, and that lockdowns reduced deaths. Defining a lockdown as a positive value for Oxford COVID-19 government response tracker, OxCGRT's stringency index, the authors tested the above hypotheses on 185 countries, 27 SIDS economies and Guam using correlation and regression analyses, and using different measures of the strictness, duration and timing of the lockdown.

Findings

The authors found no evidence to support the hypothesis that lockdowns reduced the number of cases based on data for all 185 countries and 27 SIDS economies. While the authors found evidence to support the hypothesis in the case of Guam, the result required an unrealistically and implausibly long time lag of 365 days. As to the second hypothesis that lockdowns reduced the number of deaths, the authors found no evidence to support it for 185 countries, 27 SIDS economies as well as Guam.

Originality/value

From the review of the existing literature, the authors are the first to conduct this type of study among SIDS economies as a group and on Guam.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2023

Hye-Sung Kim and Christopher J. Marier

Government repression against civilians while enforcing COVID-19 related lockdowns was widely reported in Africa. At the same time, many have claimed that high-speed (4G) mobile…

Abstract

Purpose

Government repression against civilians while enforcing COVID-19 related lockdowns was widely reported in Africa. At the same time, many have claimed that high-speed (4G) mobile network proliferation provide an accountability mechanism that may constrain police abuses. This study focused on Nigeria to examine (1) the effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on police repression and (2) whether widespread high-speed mobile data networks constrain police repression.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database (ACLED) and the Mobile Coverage Database, this study used difference-in-differences (DID) and triple difference (DDD) estimation on a sample of 423,925 observations (local government area-days) between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 to estimate the causal effects of COVID-19 lockdowns and high-speed (4G) mobile data on police repression.

Findings

Lockdowns increased certain forms of police repression in areas with substantial high-speed (4G) mobile networks. Separate from the lockdowns, widespread 4G network increased police repression even without lockdowns.

Research limitations/implications

Proliferation of high-speed mobile networks in Nigeria appears to facilitate, rather than constrain, police repression. It is possible that high-speed mobile data networks allow police to detect and repress citizen behaviors, rather than permitting citizens to correct repressive police behaviors.

Originality/value

Although many studies have explored the COVID-19 pandemic and police behavior in Western countries, only a few have examined its effects in states with even more troubled policing institutions, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, using DID and DDD estimation.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 46 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 July 2022

Na Luo, Tava Olsen, Subhamoy Ganguly and Yanping Liu

Food waste (FW) reduction, of which household wastage comprises a large fraction, has an important role in promoting the circular economy (CE). This study investigates how certain…

Abstract

Purpose

Food waste (FW) reduction, of which household wastage comprises a large fraction, has an important role in promoting the circular economy (CE). This study investigates how certain consumer traits impact household FW, particularly in the face of external shocks.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a qualitative and longitudinal study, spanning three periods in New Zealand. A preliminary model is constructed from the outcomes of a survey with 178 participants. Then, the authors carried out 29 semi-structured interviews to refine the preliminary model and adapt it to the analysis of household waste behavior.

Findings

Different segments of consumers have distinct response patterns in successive lockdowns, and these patterns impact household FW reduction and food supply chain (FSC) management. The key findings include (1) for government, quick responses to quash unhelpful rumors help to reduce public concerns around FSC interruption; (2) for retailers, the pandemic has hastened the growth of online shopping; being able to expand the distribution channel in a short time is a critical issue; and (3) for consumers, the experience of lockdown has different impacts on different groups of consumers. This variation of experience may either enhance or exacerbate FW in households.

Originality/value

This paper complements the existing literature on the FSC and contributes to household FW and CE literature by providing a framework that integrates external impacts, consumer segmentation to reflect on waste management, and the possible applications of the proposed framework.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 July 2022

Maretno A. Harjoto and Indrarini Laksmana

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown on the audit fees and audit delay of audit client firms located in 52 countries and audit firm…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown on the audit fees and audit delay of audit client firms located in 52 countries and audit firm offices located in 40 countries.

Design/methodology/approach

Using archival audit data from Audit Analytics in the fiscal year 2020, this study examines the impact of the length of COVID-19 lockdown and other public health restrictions, measured by the stringency index (Hale et al., 2021), on audit fees and audit delay using a multivariate regression analysis.

Findings

Based on a sample of 2,726 US firms and 718 non-US firms from 51 different countries outside the USA and audit firm offices in 40 countries during the fiscal year 2020, the authors find that the COVID-19 lockdown and public health restrictions increase audit fees and audit delay. However, non-US firms experience longer audit delay because of the lockdown than their US counterparts. In addition, longer lockdown and greater restrictions increase the audit fees and audit delay of non-US firms with high audit risk at a greater rate than those of US firms with high audit risk.

Practical implications

The results of this study suggest that auditors increase audit fees and have longer audit delay when facing more COVID-19 restrictions. Increased audit fees and audit delay are likely to result from higher perceived audit risk and, consequently, additional audit effort to design new procedures, train staff to use the new procedures and implement them amid the pandemic restrictions. The impact of COVID lockdown and restrictions on audit fees and audit delay are more pronounced for non-US firms with greater audit risk. The results of this study suggest that audit firms should quickly adapt to the evolving audit, risk and financial landscape created by the pandemic.

Originality/value

Using archival audit data and large sample size, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the impact of lockdown and public health restrictions during the first wave of COVID-19 outbreak on audit processes as measured with audit fees and audit delay.

Details

International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1834-7649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2022

Peter H. Reid and Lyndsay Mesjar

The research examined Scottish public libraries and the libraries' response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020–2021. The research focussed particularly…

Abstract

Purpose

The research examined Scottish public libraries and the libraries' response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020–2021. The research focussed particularly around the way that the libraries helped to support community resilience and cohesion during periods of lockdown. The study considered issues around the closure of services in March 2020, digital services, the loss of physical library spaces and governance models. The research presents the voice of service managers rather than being a user study. The research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UKRI (United Kingdom Research and Innovation), as a part of the council's scheme to provide response to the pandemic of 2020.

Design/methodology/approach

This was an exploratory study examining how Scottish public library services responded to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Three methods were deployed in the investigation. First, the gathering social media and other web-based content from library services over the months March–September 2020 (amounting to over four thousands snips of content) were analysed thematically. Second, 19 semi-structured interviews with service managers across Scotland were conducted. These were recorded, transcribed and analysed. These elements formed the cornerstone of the research but were supported by a short survey distributed to all public library services in Scotland focussed on e-lending during lockdown.

Findings

Findings are presented in respect of the lessons to be learnt from the closure of physical services and the migration to digital only provision, the contribution made to supporting communities, health and well-being, the importance of the balance of physical and digital library services around governance models for library services, as well as around the process of reopening services. This research explores how staff responded to this unparalleled situation, how the staff maintained close relationship with the communities the staff serve, what services themselves learnt through lockdown, and how the staff's management practices adapted. The findings present voices from Scottish libraries during 2020.

Research limitations/implications

The research presents a snapshot of activities during a period of fast-moving change. The research, therefore, presents a snapshot of March–December 2020, which is, however, an extremely important snapshot. The first lockdown was perhaps most interesting to study from a research perspective because the authors witnessed, real-time, how the staff responded and reacted (with lessons learnt and applied in subsequent regional or national lockdowns later in 2020 and in the 2021). The second lockdown and subsequent periods were outside the scope of this research.

Practical implications

Recommendations are offered around the need for a national conversation about digital content provision in public libraries and the exploration of possibilities of a national approach, the role libraries have as digital enablers (in supporting effort to overcome the digital divide in society), the crucial nature of continued strong advocacy for public libraries, the importance of the library as a physical space, and on how to maintain the flexibility, agility and autonomy which emerged during lockdown.

Social implications

The research presents strong testimony about the social value of public libraries as free, safe and public spaces within communities. It also highlights the continued digital divide which exists in many places and the important role that public libraries have in being digital enablers for many members of the public. The closeness of library service staff to users is strongly evidenced in the testimony from managers as is the need for parent organisation (local authorities or in culture or leisure trusts) to recognise more fully the breadth of services the public library provides and how these are “essential” for many users.

Originality/value

The value and distinctiveness of this research lies in the fact that the research captured the voices, thoughts and perceptions of Scotland’s public libraries during the period of lockdown in 2020. The evidence gathered suggests important conversations are required around equity of e-lending provision, the role of libraries as digital enablers, the balance between physical and digital provision and around the ways libraries are managed (directly by local authorities or in culture trusts). The research affords lessons for public library provision beyond Scotland with many issues being transferable to other contexts.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 9000