Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tourist Risk Perceptions—The Case Study of Porto

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (in early 2020) has dictated significant changes in society and territories by anticipating trends, changing priorities, and creating challenges, which are manifested in the territories. These are influenced by the levels of economic, cultural, and social restructuring, in the measures implemented by public administration or in attempts to redefine strategies for tourism destinations. This paper examines the perceptions and behaviors of tourists before and during COVID-19 in the municipality of Porto, the main area of the Porto Metropolitan Area, in Portugal. Research was based on the application of a questionnaire survey, probing the sensitivity of tourists to the crisis in the decision-making of daily routines, as well as future travel plans in the presence of a serious health concern. A total of 417 surveys were collected in the summers of 2019 and 2020. In addition to descriptive statistics, this paper also includes the results of the analysis of explanatory factors, being a reference for future studies. There were significant changes in the use of public space and the way tourist visits are handled, namely: (i) the concentration of visiting time (shorter visit than usual in certain tourist profiles); (ii) spatially limited visiting areas; and (iii) the ability to attract standard tourists from certain countries where tighter lockdown rules were imposed. Main implications of this study are reflected in the challenges that are imposed on the local agenda, where traditional problems are added to the responsibilities in crisis management and the ability to establish a third order of intervention in tourism.

Visiones utópicas y distópicas en las películas. La voz de la luna y Tiempo después

In the mid-1980s, the program of economic, political, and social restructuring —perestroika— and the new era of transparency and openness —glasnost— became the unintended catalyst for dismantling what had taken nearly three-quarters of a century to erect Communist states. While the reforms of perestroika and glasnost instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev, were not the sole causes of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., the forces they unleashed destabilized an already weakening system and hastened its end. The political protests and the exodus of thousands of East Germans —Peaceful Revolution— fleeing to West Germany and Austria through the Hungarian border, contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989, and it also triggered the German reunification in 1990. But since the end of the Cold War (1947-1991), many disappointments such as the worsening of socio-economic inequality and global instability, have followed the initial euphoria associated with the victory of the Western Bloc over the Eastern Bloc. The resurgence of the dichotomous relationship capitalism vs communism, and the political polarization driven by a sharp generational divide, are portrayed by the Italian-French co-production “The Voice of the Moon” (Dir. Federico Fellini, 1990), and the Spanish-Portuguese co-production “Some Time Later” (Dir. José Luis Cuerda, 2018). Both cinematic approximations embrace the ideological resistance towards the ongoing process of dehumanization and its pernicious effects on society. The achievement of social justice is deliberately postponed by the technocratic power elite, and by youth generations that are disengaged with its historical past, and enslaved by digital technologies.

Mass Inoculation and Rural Rhythms: Local Agents, Population Data, and Restructured Social Systems during the Cholera Pandemic in China, 1962–1965

This article examines the dynamics between the mass inoculation campaigns and China’s restructured rural social system during the 1962–1965 cholera pandemic, with a focus on the role of local agents and population data during the integration of the medical and administrative systems. The inoculation campaigns not only harnessed local agents and household and accounting information provided by the broader social restructuring initiatives but also directly contributed to these by compiling inoculation registers and certificates. These campaigns included the administrative and medical systems and combined social, production, and epidemiological data in a reciprocal process. The mass inoculations therefore functionalized social control; facilitated the formation and top-down imposition of a new, broad-reaching social structure; and contributed to the formation of a sedentary society. In this sense, these inoculation campaigns were a significant social and political exercise rather than just a pathological, medical, and health incident.

Beyond the ‘stop gap’: young (adult) women’s experiences of living with parents in the aftermath of the Greek austerity crisis

In the context of greater strains imposed by the post-2008 global financial crisis, it has become more commonplace for young people to live with their parents for extended periods. Beyond a domination of Anglophone research, far less is known about whether these experiences of living with parents vary in countries with different economic and cultural contexts. This article focuses on young women in contemporary Greece – a society undergoing radical social restructuring in the wake of the post-2008 economic crisis. Drawing on qualitative interviews with young university-educated women in urban Greece (n=36), the article argues that the current fiscal crisis alongside long-standing patriarchal norms place a significant burden on the lives of these young women. It concludes that evaluation of the impact of financial crisis on the living arrangements of young people should carefully assess the interaction of the gender and cultural aspects of family lives.

The redefinition of female identity and the conquest of spaces in Brazilian society

This qualitative social and bibliographic research aimed to discuss the redefinition of female identity throughout history, covering women’s submissive identity in a patriarchal society until achieving multiple identities in contemporary society, in which women accumulate roles and domestic tasks with the competitive professional life. The study started from the social position of women in Brazilian colonial society until current days, and for this reason, we discuss the main factors and events that have contributed to the social restructuring and the emancipation of women in contemporaneity. In this context, women achieved several conquests, such as the right to education, to vote, to salaried work and, especially, the right to equality between men and women. Although notable advances, women still face difficulties in asserting their new social roles, since the changes are still not consolidated in our society.

Risk, Populism, and Criminal Law

Criminal law is being broadened from its normative and moral response to wrongdoing to include the capacity to act as a preventive force. As well as reacting to crime that has been committed, it also attempts to control the risk of future crime. In so doing, preventive criminal law makes use of hybrid and retrospective legislation, while reversing or lowering burdens of proof if these are thought to unfairly advantage offenders/defendants, raising important human rights issues. We argue that this emphasis on controlling risk was the response to issues of uncertainty and insecurity generated by post-1970s economic and social restructuring. Where, though, do these criminal law characteristics of “risk society” now sit, given the contemporary rise of populist politics? Populism promises an end to risk and its attendant uncertainties and anxieties, but it is already extending rather than reversing the preventive capacity of criminal law. This is because populism continuously needs to find new victims that it embraces and pledges to defend against their assailants, law-breakers or otherwise, real or imagined. The focus of risk control thus embraces new populations—refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants of all kinds, legal or otherwise. Conventions such as the rule of law and the separation of powers that might previously have limited such interventions are brushed aside as outmoded examples of elitist thinking. Instead, security is prioritized over residual concerns about due process, while also prioritizing public protection over individual rights.

Gender and the Labour of Law

This chapter troubles the notion of ‘labour’ in ‘labour law’ by excavating the material and philosophical roots of the distinction between paid and unpaid labour. Feminists have long argued that labour law is based on a paid work paradigm and that in the context of radical economic and social restructuring in the post-industrial era, labour law scholars must extend the focus of enquiry to encompass unpaid domestic work. The chapter explores how the separation of paid and unpaid labour arose in the context of the transition from feudalism to capitalism and how it came to be explained and justified in liberal political thought. While the primary focus is historical, the concluding section considers the implications for the future of labour law of moving beyond a paid work paradigm.

Risks Management in Travel Business: Peculiarities, Types Criteria of Estimation

The article considers important issues on the security of travel business as a component of the state’s social and economic system and methods of its impact on risks. The major purpose of this article is to identify the main principles that substantiate the peculiarities of risk assessment in the travel business as the main element contributing to the achievement of travel security, as well as to study instruments and types of risks on the travel services market. The study subject is the security of the travel business. The study object is the market of travel services.The development of tourism technologies is the leading trend of the world economy stipulated by social restructuring of the modern society. The Russian Federation has defined the economic task of the state policy related to travel services. This is to turn tourism into a competitive, innovative, sustainable and highly-profitable sector of the national business. Travel business involves a comprehensive system of relations between suppliers and consumers of the relevant services, between travel agencies and their competitors, as well as among business partners. The operation of a travel agency on the market includes the following: selection of a market niche; development of a travel product; determination of the volume of services provided; improvement of pricing formation; expansion of advertising activities; scientific research; attraction of investments; interaction with other companies, and relations with government bodies. Currently methods and models are intensively implemented in the formation and development of travel management systems, which is associated with the increased competitiveness of the products offered on the travel market.The identification of risks in the operation of a travel company can become a guarantee of its successful and well-coordinated activity. It is possible to quickly and timely identify risks of a travel agency by using the SWOT analysis as a strategic management instrument.