• COVID-19
• Publicationsclose
• Research dataclose
• Research softwareclose
• Other research productsclose
• 2019-2023close
• Restricted close
• DK close
• English close
• University of Southern Denmark Research Output close

On March 6, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared that all gatherings over 1000 people would be banned until at least August 31, 2020. This announcement, and subsequent further reductions in gathering numbers, effectively ‘cancelled the summer’ of music festivals and much more in 2020. In this paper, based on a study of three music festivals in Denmark, we focus on the un-making of music festivals and their creative re-making across diverse social spaces and contexts by multiple agents in response to the trauma of cancellation. The absence of music festivals points actors to a Corona-induced social and cultural lack, an emblematic fact referring to the loss of spaces of intense sociality and connection which we interpret via literatures on compressed cultural trauma. Our field research shows that lack and loss are not the defining features of this event. Instead, a suite of strategies is enacted to protect and repair the festival ritual, its history, community, and commercial interests in the wake of Corona’s attack. The paper draws upon extensive ethnographic and qualitative research, including a 7-month ongoing longitudinal phase of interviews with audiences and various types of organisers associated with three cancelled Danish music festivals, as well as a 9-month ongoing large-scale longitudinal media and netnographic analysis. We examine how agents of festivalisation - festival organisers, musicians, audiences, local entrepreneurs, and festival spaces – have gone about remembering, commemorating, and mobilising festivals in the wake of Corona. We explore the ways festival agents use materials, spaces, symbolic resources and creative strategies to respond to the external threat of the virus and reflect on who these festival agents are acting for, what they end up making, and why. Specificities of responses differ depending on festival type, history and context. Further, responses are also relationally and temporo-spatially anchored to interpretation of wider Corona developments. However, we observe widespread evidence of creative re-materialisations of festival experiences, pointing to processes of remembrance, repair, and the ongoing constructive re-making of ritual festival experience in novel contexts.

1. Background and GoalsA major challenge for public palliative care is to support all people who want to die at home. Last Aid Courses (LAC) have been started in 2015 to educate citizens and to empower them to participate in end-of-life care. The main goals of the International Last Aid project were to establish an International Last Aid working group and to provide and evaluate public palliative care education for citizens. 2. MethodsBetween 2017 and 2019 an International Last Aid working group with representatives from different countries and national organisations from e.g. palliative care, health-services, and the church as cooperation partners has been established. The curriculum and contents of the International Last Aid course are revised every other year by the International Last Aid working group. Scientific evaluation of LAC is coordinated by the international Last Aid Research Group Europe (LARGE) that was founded in September 2019. The experiences from he implementation process and the findings from the scientific evaluation will be summarised and presented during the Zoominar. 3. Results and ConclusionWork on LAC has been started in 17 countries as Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Lithuania, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Brasil, etc. The overall results show that the LAC is feasible and very well accepted in many different countries, cultures and groups. It has been used for adults, children and groups as hospital employees and policemen. LAC are even possible as online course format that was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific work on cultural issues and the effects of Last aid Courses are ongoing in a number of countries. In conclusion Last Aid Courses are feasible and well accepted by citizens in different countries. The courses can contribute to a public debate on death, dying and palliative care and may contribute to empower citizens to provide end-of-life care. Keywords: Palliative care, public palliative care education, end-of-life care, home death, compassionate communities, Last Aid Course Biography: Dr. med. Georg Bollig, PhD, MAS, DEAA is a physician and researcher. He is a specialist in anaesthesiology, emergency medicine and palliative medicine with scientific work in various fields. He works as consultant in palliative medicine at the Medical Center Sønderjylland in Sønderborg, South Jutland Hospital, Denmark. Georg is a clinical associate professor in palliative care at the University of Southern Denmark. He invented Last Aid Courses and is the leader of Last Aid International and the international Last Aid working group. At present he is working on research projects about ethics, telemedicine and the effects of Last Aid Courses. The presented research has been performed without external funding.Presenting author details that will be used for Certificates and Id cardsDr. Georg Bollig, PhD, MAS, DEAA; Clin. Assoc. Prof. in Palliative Care Palliative Care Team, Medical Department Sønderborg/Tønder, South Jutland Hospital, Sønderborg, Denmark b Palliative Care research group, Medical Research Unit, Institute of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmarkc Last Aid International, Schleswig, GermanyEmail 1(Work): georg.bollig@rsyd.dkEmail 2(Personal): bollig.georg@gmx.deMobile: +49-17634747059Office Tel: +45-20168303ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0367-5295

This paper investigates how parents of children in primary school dealt with anxiety in the context of pandemic health risks during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Denmark, this group found itself at the frontline of the reopening after an early lock-down. Creches, kindergartens, and primaryschools were among the first societal institutions to reopen, with the youngest pupils in primary schools to return first. This had been discussed controversially among parents, and one day after the announcement of the reopening a Facebook group called “My child should not be a guinea pig for COVID-19” had emerged. In this paper, we are analyzing how these and other parents dealt with this situation, based on qualitative interviews with 30 key informants (parents and teachers) supplemented by a qualitative survey filled in by 31 parents, collected during the first re-opening phase (April – July2020). Our findings indicate several types of strategies of dealing with anxiety and risk, namely somethat involve trust (1), especially in schools and teachers, enabling the parents to overcome their anxiety related to sending their children back to school, and others, that are not primarily built on trust, but rather on ignoring the anxious “gut feeling” (2) and resisting strategies (3) either in an overt (openly criticizing the re-opening) or hidden (e.g. keeping the child home sick) way. As our sample included a group of asylum seekers, our findings also indicate that patterns of exclusion in the context of an universal welfare state and a society characterized by comparatively high equality might mean a limitation of possible strategies, as e.g. resisting strategies appeared to be out of reach for that particular group.

Last Aid courses (LAC) were introduced in 2015 in three countries (Norway, Germany and Denmark) to teach the public about palliative care. The main aims of LAC are to stimulate the public discussion about death, dying and palliative care and to enable people to participate in end-of-life care in the community. At present the International Last Aid working group includes members from 18 countries from Europe, Brazil and Australia. Usually LACs are held in a classroom setting with 6-20 participants and two facilitators. Initially the 2nd International Last aid Conference was planned in October 2020 in Maribor, Slovenia. When the pandemic struck this became impossible. To cope with the demanding challenges and the fact that physical group meetings and conferences became impossible in 2020 Last Aid International had to find ways of continuing the work. A taskforce on Online Last Aid Courses was established in Germany and LACs were held Online via different web based platforms. The 2nd International Last Aid Conference took place online with 174 delegates from 18 countries. The implications and effects of COVID-19 on the development of Last Aid International will be presented and discussed in detail.References: 1. Bollig G, Meyer S, Knopf B, Schmidt S, Bauer EH. First Experiences with Online Last Aid Courses for Public Palliative Care Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Feb 5;9(2):172. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9020172. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/2/172 2. Zelko E, Bollig G. Report from the 2. International LAST AID Conference Online—The social impact of palliative care, October 30 2020, Maribor, Slovenia. AIMS Medical Science 2021, Volume 8, Issue 1: 42-45. doi: 10.3934/medsci.2021005 https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/medsci.2021005

Over the covid-19 lockdown period, Dr James Rogers worked with history teachers and academics to keep the learning going in lockdown. He now has a fantastic range of videos and podcasts available. All content is free to access and is explicitly designed to help teachers and students undertake A-Level and GCSE history revision.Podcast - Slavery and Emancipation in the United States, with Dr Cathrine Armstrong.Podcast - The History of Terrorism - The IRA, with Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe.Video - The Rise of Hitler - Hitler, Power, and War, with Ms Laurie Matthews.Video - The Home Front in WW2 - The Butterfly Bombing of Grimsby, with Dr James Rogers.