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Reflecting on a methodological experiment, we discuss the use of computational techniques in anthropology. The experiment was based on a collaborative effort by a team of ethnographers to produce an archive on the digitalisation of everyday life that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe how online ethnographic data collection took place using digitally mediated interviews, participant observation in virtual events, and mobile ethnography. We analyse the consequences of online ethnography for establishing rapport and present steps taken to create an infrastructure for navigating ethnographic material comprising more than 3000 pages of text generated by multiple ethnographers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 6 million deaths since 2020. To contain the spread of the virus, social distancing is one of the most simple yet effective approaches. Motivated by this, in this paper we study the problem of continuous social distance monitoring (SDM) in indoor space, in which we can monitor and predict the pairwise distances between moving objects (people) in a building in real time. SDM can also serve as the fundamental service for downstream applications, e.g., a mobile alert application that prevents its users from potential close contact with others. To facilitate the monitoring process, we propose a framework that takes the current and future uncertain locations of the objects into account, and finds the object pairs that are close to each other in a near future. We develop efficient algorithms to update the result when object locations update. We carry out experiments on both real and synthetic datasets. The results verify the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed framework and algorithms.

Strategic government interventions in public education have shifted and blurred the boundaries between state, market and civil society modes of governance. Within this matrix of interdependent relations, schools operate under increasingly hybrid accountability arrangements in which public accountability can both complement and compete with market and social regimes and their associated institutional logics, goals, values and mechanisms. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, national governments implemented a wide range of emergency measures which had consequences for the mixes and layers of school accountabilities. This article examines the principal policy changes in Denmark, England and Italy. Drawing on state theories and the concept of ‘hybrid accountability’, semi-structured interviews with national and local policymakers and school practitioners were analysed thematically. While cultural nuances exist between the cases, our findings reveal that state interventions reinforce a public–professional accountability hybrid and hierarchies of control and command within and outside networks. Concomitantly, state non-interventions and the distinct underlying institutional logics associated with national large-scale assessments suggest policy inertia with implications for professional accountability and institutionalised change. Future research might investigate whether educators’ experiences influence the direction of national and local accountability policy reforms in a post-pandemic era.

The communication from leaders during a time of crisis significantly impacts how the crisis unfolds. Leaders also play a decisive role in fostering either virtuous or vicious dynamics when organizations are torn between competing demands(Pradies et al., 2020; Smith, 2014). But never has it been morepressing for organizational leaders to be mindful of what andhow they communicate than in the COVID-19 crisis. In manycases, the current pandemic has surfaced the “invisible currents of paradox” (Quinn & Nujella, 2017, p. vii) operating within organizations, making it vital for leaders to craft messages that align people’s beliefs and actions and mobilize them towards a common goal.

The approach of this chapter is polemical in nature, reflecting the very fluid situation that lies ahead for orchestras post COVID-19. The chapter has three main academic research objectives. First, to put the current debate in context, it looks at the key challenges that orchestras have faced since the turn of the last century and in what way COVID-19 posed new problems that impacted orchestral music. The second objective is to outline some special short-term measures introduced to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, namely: (i) the income-support measures needed to sustain orchestras; and (ii) the extent to which orchestras could come together and practice, and in fact perform, even if only in front of no or very limited live audiences. The third objective is to discuss what possibly lies ahead for live orchestral music, post-COVID-19, and in a rapidly changing world regarding technological advances in the production and consumption of orchestral music. To inform this discussion, some broad trends in the ‘consumption’ of orchestral music over time, particularly in terms of numbers attending live concerts and revenues from streamed concerts, are examined.

This chapter reflects on ‘Technologies of InclusiveWell-Being’ related tothe evolution of the health sector. The editorial team’s three volumes realized to date are overviewed aligned with contemporary related literatures in the field. Areflection on Covid-19 precedes a closing section consideration on the future ‘Technologies of Inclusive Well-Being’ and digital wellness impact in healthcare.

Increasing use of digital tools in university teaching has attracted scholarly attention on the interaction between pedagogic design and digital technologies. The accelerated transition to online learning following the crisis of COVID-19 has raised a number of questions regarding the tie between technological affordances and learning strategies, especially with regard to the role of dialogue in learning. Based on a questionnaire with 51 postgraduate students in a PBL-university, where collaborative interaction and dialogic processes are regarded as integral to the PBL-method, this study investigates how students navigated the altered learning environment. We found that students’ experiences with online teaching denote reduced affordances for learning. They experienced decreased co-involvement in decision-making, decreased dialogic collaboration and a changed pedagogic setup that did not support learning through discursive meaning negotiations. Thus, whilst dialogues can be transformed by digital technology, these changes are not necessarily productive when taking into account the ideal of democratic discourse. Arguably, the digital transformation will continue to evolve and to influence the quality of university teaching. The paper concludes by discussing the potential of democratic dialogic teaching to stimulate learning ecologies in online and hybrid learning environments. Increasing use of digital tools in university teaching has drawn scholarly attention to the interaction between pedagogical design and digital technologies. The accelerated transition to online learning following the COVID-19 crisis has raised several questions regarding the links between technological affordances and learning strategies, especially with regard to the role of dialogue in learning. Based on a survey of 51 postgraduate students in a Danish university with Problem Based Learning as explicit teaching strategy, where collaborative interaction and dialogue are regarded as integral to learning, this study investigates how students navigated the altered learning environment. We found that students’ experiences with online teaching demonstrate reduced affordances for learning. They experienced decreased co-involvement in decision-making, decreased collaboration and a changed pedagogical setup that did not support learning through discursive meaning negotiations. Thus, whilst dialogues can be transformed by digital technology, these changes are not necessarily productive within an environment which emphasises democratic discourse. Arguably, the digital transformation will continue to evolve and influence the quality of university teaching. Our paper concludes by discussing the potential of democratic dialogic teaching to stimulate learning ecologies in online and hybrid learning environments.