Since January 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in 148,999,876 confirmed cases as well as 3,140,115 deaths (WHO) and the subsequent government restrictions that resulted from the rapid spread of the virus, have had an enormous impact on all aspects of life for communities around the world. In particular, the pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities and risks particular groups of people face as they try to navigate their daily lives amidst all the health, social, economic, relational ramifications resulting from the virus. As a result, focusing on the notion of care, the School for Policy Studies' 2021 International Seminar Series will present a range of perspectives relating to care and wellbeing of groups that have been most arguably adversely affected by the pandemic: the elderly and children.

Chair: Dr. Paul Willis, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Speaker: · Professor Karen West, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Title: Compassionate Extra Care Communities in the Covid-19 pandemic. In this talk Professor West will draw on diary data gathered from individuals in a small research project (the Bereavement Diaries project, a collaboration between the Universities of Bristol, Aston, Cruse Bereavement Care and the Extra Care Charitable Trust) to explore how grief and bereavement have been experienced during the pandemic and the everyday ways in which people have given, and continue to give, one another support. Data were collected from Extra Care retirement villages and trained Cruse Bereavement volunteers.

Speaker: Professor Simon Biggs, School of Social & Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne

Focusing on Australia and Finland, Professor Biggs will explore the extent to which the relationship between riskiness and later life has changed during the course of the pandemic. This could be interpreted as from being ‘at risk’ to being ‘a risk’ and back again, touching on differential interpretations of vulnerability, social inclusion/exclusion and social rights and responsibilities.

This is an online event, joining details will be shared in due course.

For information on the second seminar in the series: Care, Order and Child Wellbeing during COVID from a Global Perspective