The theme for the essay was community planning and changed everyday life during Covid-19. The pandemic is worldwide and has affected almost everything in today's society. The essay deals with interaction in the public spaces and well-being, and how these have been affected during Covid-19 compared to before. The purpose of the essay was to investigate if young adults' interaction in the public space and well-being has been affected during Covid-19 compared to before the pandemic outbreak. Based on the purpose, two questions were formed "Has the well-being of young adults been affected during Covid-19 compared to before the outbreak of the pandemic?" and "Has interaction in the public space affected young adults during Covid-19 compared to before the pandemic outbreak?" In the essay, a quantitative study has been used in the form of a questionnaire study, this study was conducted on young adults between 18 - 29 years at Karlstads University. The results showed that both interaction and well-being in the public space were affected during Covid-19. The changing well-being due to the pandemic showed that the impact was negative. The interaction in the public space had become less during Covid-19 compared to before. In Chapter 5, the results were analyzed using our previous research and Foucault's power perspective. Finally, in the last chapter, the results were discussed to answer the questions that in turn answered the purpose of the essay. This chapter also includes a critical review section where misinterpretations and other shortcomings are addressed.

Covid-19 pandemin har haft en enorm påverkan på världen. Speciellt drabbad blev restauranger som har varit tvungna att anpassa sig till regeringens och Folkhälsomyndighetens rekommendationer och restriktioner som förändrades flertalet gånger under krisens gång. De statliga uppmaningarna till allmänheten att undvika folktäta miljöer har resulterat till färre besökare hos restauranger. Studien har tillämpat en kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Insamling av det empiriska materialet har skett genom tre kvalitativa intervjuer från respondenter som har gedigen erfarenhet inom restaurangbranschen. Studien har undersökt vilken roll Covid-19 pandemin har haft på restaurangernas kommunikationsstrategier samt vilka typer av krishanteringsåtgärder restaurangerna använt sig av för att hantera förändringarna som Covid-19 pandemin medfört. Helhetsbilden från analysen visade att företagen drabbades mycket hårt av krisen men lyckades ändå hålla sin verksamhet levande genom att tänka innovativt och hitta kreativa lösningar. Företagen har inte kunnat använda sig av någon tydlig planering i deras strategiarbete under Covid-19 då situationen ständigt har förändrats och de har konstant behövt anpassa sig efter de rådande omständigheter som har varit. Strategiarbetet har i stället fokuserat på kreativt entreprenörskap, kortsiktig planering samt nytänkande. Avslutningsvis är grunden för ett fungerande strategiarbete under pandemin utifrån företagen i studien att möta en ofrivillig förändring med nytänkande och snabbt beslutsfattande.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the global economy, as governments imposed restrictions on mobility and social distancing. As a consequence many businesses shifted their daily activities to remote channels. The urgent shift meant a lack in organizational and workforce readiness to integrate the change in daily routines. Hence, as the majority of organizations adapt remote practices, it is critical to address the fundamental and contextual consequences within the current framework.  Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the shift in organizational hierarchy as a consequence of the implementation of remote work in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Methodology: A quantitative research design was applied, where primary data was collected through surveys. The sample size consisted of 47 participants that were currently employed in Sweden and had experienced a shift to remote work during the pandemic (2020-2022). Moreover, the participants have been employed during the period 2017-2022, as the intention was to compare the perceptions before and after the pandemic.  Findings: The findings revealed that no significant change in hierarchical structure had occurred due to the shift to remote work. Empirical evidence proposed a significant decrease in response times between different departments; nonetheless, the following is not evident enough to support a shift in hierarchical structure. There was an evident shift in one out of six leadership styles, as adaptation of task-oriented leadership decreased. The shift was further explained by a task-oriented approach exemplifying autocratic characteristics, that in turn malfunctioned in times of urgency. Finally, there has been a decrease in satisfaction concerning work environment and social interactions with colleagues. Overall, the study lacked empirical evidence that indicated a prominent shift in hierarchical structures or leadership style.  Implications for future research: The current study found implications on diminishing satisfaction related to the work environment perceptions. Thus, suggestions for future research include a focus on investigating the causations of the aforementioned issues. The underlying reasons for the shift from task-oriented leadership could be further explored, as previous research argues for its benefits in the context of leading virtual teams. Finally, there is development potential in exploring the shift of perceptions from different employment configurations, which might be influential in the context of hierarchical reflections.

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Many states across the country have felt the impact of a nationwide teacher shortage. Specifically, the state of Mississippi has experienced a shortage of certified agricultural education teachers. Unfortunately, during a time, a novel virus (Coronavirus or COVID-19) swept the entire world and shook the academic world to its core. Like the majority, educators were encouraged to adopt a variety of approaches to better flow with the changes in their “normal” routines. Many researchers have suggested that teachers are leaving education due to little resources, recognition, and high job demands, which correlates to poor job satisfaction and symptoms of burnout. The COVID- 19 pandemic is a potential factor in the teacher retention rates. This study observes levels of job satisfaction and burnout among Mississippi agricultural education teachers. As well as considering the COVID-19 pandemic as an element to these levels as well.

Syftet med denna studie var att bidra med en kompletterande bild till den redan existerande forskningen om faktorer som bidrar till god samverkan genom att undersöka vad pedagoger gjort, lärt sig och kommer ta med sig för strategier i arbetet med samverkan mellan hem och förskola under Covid-19’s pandemi. Studien är kvalitativ och utfördes genom att intervjua 12 pedagoger från förskolor från två kommuner i norra Sverige. Uppsatsen utgår från samverkansteori präglad av tamburkontakt. Resultatet visade olika faktorer som bidrar till en god samverkan, Covid-19’s påverkan på samverkan, strategier som bidrar till en god samverkan och lärdomar som kan gynna samverkan. Den fysiska kontaktens relevans för samverkan är genomgående från forskning som presenteras och från utsagor från intervjuade pedagoger. Digitalitet är något samtliga pedagoger använt som strategi för att komplettera bristen av fysisk kontakt med vårdnadshavare som även är en lärdom de kommer fortsätta använda mer av i arbetet med samverkan i framtiden kompletterat med den dagliga fysiska kontakten. Slutligen diskuteras och problematiseras konstruktionen av större förskolor och dess innebörd för samverkan då uppfattningen av Covid-19’s påverkan för samverkan varierar starkt. På förskolor med gemensamma utrymmen uppfattas samverkan påverkats negativt av restriktioner medan på förskolor med enskilda utrymmen positivt. / <p>Betyg i Ladok 2022-06-05.</p>

By reviewing pre-existing academic literature, research, and data (both international and domestic), this report examines information from a variety of sources to contextualize the threat of COVID-19 against the negative consequences of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) response measures. The qualitative and quantitative data in this report highlights costs associated with COVID-19 response measures relative to the threat of COVID-19 and has been collected to inform a Multiple Accounts Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). This report emphasizes the costs associated with NPIs as they relate to physical and mental health, as well as human rights and economic concerns. Overall, a review of available evidence did find a relationship between COVID-19 NPI response measure implementation and negative outcomes. In fact, it remains unclear if NPIs are proportionate or even effective against the risk posed by COVID-19. How NPIs might be optimized (i.e., to reduce the negative effects of their implementation) remains unclear as mild to severe NPI implementation can yield similar outcomes. Following the above analysis, this report provides recommendations to the Government of BC to ensure that COVID-19 response measures are optimized and proposes that a Multiple Accounts CBA of NPI implementation be completed. / Graduate

Using the universe of individual asylum cases in the United States from 2000–2004 and a difference-in-differences research design, we test whether Sept. 11, 2001 decreased the likelihood that applicants from Muslim-majority countries were granted asylum. Our estimates suggest that the attacks resulted in a 3.2 percentage point decrease in the likelihood that applicants from Muslim-majority countries are granted asylum. The estimated effect is larger for applicants who share a country of origin with the Sept. 11, 2001 attackers. These effects do not differ across judge political affiliation. Our findings provide evidence that emotions affect the decisions of judges.

The current study investigated the language behaviour of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Linguistic complexity (LC)—a measure of lexical and morpho-syntactic richness—is an index of both cognitive functioning and creativity. The increased physical and social isolation during the pandemic yielded reports of heightened levels of creativity as well as cognitive decline, bringing forth two counter-directed predictions: (1) given the threat to cognitive functioning posed by the pandemic, LC may steadily decrease following the onset of the pandemic, or; (2) consistent with the creativity boost reported during lockdowns, LC may be greater after the onset of the pandemic. This work analyzed the syntactic and lexical complexity of texts from the CoSoWELL corpus (v1.0), a collection of personal narratives written by 1028 mature adults (55+) collected at five test sessions spanning before (t1) and after (t2-t5) the beginning of the pandemic. Two lexical variables (type-token ratio; noun-verb ratio) and six syntactic variables (two syntactic variants of type-token ratio; embeddedness; D-ratio; longest dependency path; mean length utterance) were used to calculate LC. All measures saw statistically significant gains from t1 to t2, and further increased across subsequent test sessions. These findings confirmed the second hypothesis and, I argue, support a pandemic-related boost to creativity. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The COVID-19 pandemic has been isolating, and isolation is a mixed bag: being alone promotes self-reflection and overthinking, and doing too much is linked to stress and mental illness. However, more time spent in solitude is also linked to greater creativity. Creativity means more new ideas, which come through as longer, more detailed sentences, with less repetition. This research looked at stories by older adults about their lives, written before and during the pandemic. Surprisingly, the language in the stories became more descriptive and diverse over time—meaning people were being more creative after COVID-19 hit. In the wake of this lonely storm, one silver lining has emerged: whether in spite of or because of this pandemic, creativity is flourishing.

Under de senaste decennierna har säkerhetsbegreppet breddats och alltfler forskare intresserar sig för hur sjukdomar utgör, och framställs som, säkerhetshot. Säkerhetiseringsteorin hävdar att säkerhetshot konstrueras när aktörer framställer något som ett existentiellt hot. De fåtal studier som gjorts om säkerhetisering av covid-19 i Sverige har främst undersökt hur regeringen har säkerhetiserat covid-19, medan oppositionens roll förblivit outforskad, trots oppositionens makt att forma den allmänna debatten. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om och isåfall hur oppositionen genomförde säkerhetiseringsförsök av covid-19 under pandemins första år. En kvalitativ diskursanalys av Vänsterpartiets och Sverigedemokraternas retorik om covid-19 under mars och december 2020 visar att båda partierna genomfört säkerhetiseringsförsök där covid-19 framställts som ett ekonomiskt och hälsomässigt existentiellt hot mot flertalet referensobjekt, däribland människor, företag och arbetstagare, även om referensobjektens sammansättning ändrades över tid. Vidare tycks syftet med Sverigedemokraternas säkerhetiserande språk ändrats från att i mars ha använts för att motivera åtgärder mot covid-19 till att i december kritisera regeringen för politisk vinning. Detta står i kontrast till Vänsterpartiet som i mindre utsträckning använde ett säkerhetiserande språk i december. Resultaten visar hur oppositionen kan spela en viktig roll i skapandet av säkerhetshot. Framtida forskning bör därför undersöka kopplingen mellan oppositionens retorik i krissituationer och de faktiska åtgärder som genomförs samt publikens acceptans av dessa.