The 2020 virus pandemic raises lots of scientific questions which I am in no position to comment on – no more than any other layperson. But as a sociologist, there are questions about people and organizations which trouble me. When this crisis is over, I want to know if these will be answered by social science. Here are the top three sociological questions on my list.
First, here’s an organizational question. High stress has been reported in workers in hospital Covid intensive care units. This has been described as traumatic and debilitating. There seems to me a sociological cause for this. Hospitals today are unfamiliar with high rates of mortality. Unlike in hospice care, doctors and nurses in these units are unable to discuss death and dying – with each other and with patients. The sociology here concerns the institution, its mission, and what discourse is professionally acceptable. To me, what is going on today looks like a return to what Bluebond-Langner (1978) called the “private worlds of the dying.” In hospitals with high death rates, staff, patients, and family members alike conceal from each other the impending deaths. I suspect this contributes a lot of stress to employees.
My second question concerns generations. Specifically, how have the politicians and policy makers, who have taken most countries into a harsh lockdown, affected young people? Before this virus took hold, there was already noticable feeling against the older generation. An example is the internet phrase OK Boomer, which is part of a rising criticism of older generations during the last decade. Coronavirus has added an intense and personal conflict between parents and their teen children. Awareness is rising generally that locking down friendships, separating girlfriends and boyfriends, and preventing wedding parties, for example, is hurting young people in what matters to them most. Interestingly, Sweden is one country where effort has been made to keep social interactions normal. Tentatively, some claims have been made in Sweden that normality will, in the long run, be better for human relationships. A BBC report by Maddy Savage, 24th July 2020, quotes Nordenstedt as saying that Swedish “People are not as exhausted as they might be in other countries where the restrictions have been much wider and much stricter.” And economics professor, Karolina Ekholm, is quoted as saying that “There’s been less disruption for the generation now growing up – in terms of learning. That may produce benefits further down the line …” The future of generations is, to me, a sociological question which demands to be studied. What is remarkable, for this sociologist, is that nobody is currently advocating for young people’s relationship needs.
This leads to my third question, the language of social science. Shouldn’t sociologists be able to talk about personal relationships and explain why these are important? Sociologists know friendships, courtship, and associating at events are crucial; parents want these for their own children. But all public speakers fall into an inexplicable silence when it comes to explaining youth. Isn’t sociology what explains young people’s need for friendships, romances, and congregating at peer events? Educators talk about the harm that lockdown does when children are excluded from schools and universities. Economists possess language and data supported facts to show harm being done to national economies. The equivalent task for sociologists is to articulate young people’s need for personal relationships and advocate for this understanding in social policy. Professional silence during these harmful times seems to me inexplicable. Damage is being done to young people, yet no one is pointing out the possible long term effects for an entire younger generation.
Each of these areas gives social scientists something to contribute to ensure that, before the next crisis comes along, we can demonstrate the sociology within youth’s relationships, personal needs, and people’s employment in institutions.
