ISSN 2544-5502 SOCIETY REGISTER 4 (2) 2020 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan ISSN 2544-5502 SOCIETY REGISTER 4 (2) 2020 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan SOCIETY REGISTER 2020 / Vol. 4, No. 2 ISSN: 2544-5502 | DOI: 10.14746/sr EDITORIAL TEAM: Mariusz Baranowski (Editor-in-Chief), Marcos A. Bote (Social Policy Editor), Piotr Cichocki (Quantitative Research Editor), Sławomir Czapnik (Political Science Editor), Piotr Jabkowski (Statistics Editor), Mark D. Juszczak (International Relations), Agnieszka Kanas (Stratification and Inequality Editor), Magdalena Lemańczyk (Anthropology Editor), Urszula Markowska-Manista (Educational Sciences Editor), Bartosz Mika (Sociology of Work Editor), Kamalini Mukherjee (English language Editor), Krzysztof Nowak-Posadzy (Philoso- phy Editor), Anna Odrowąż-Coates (Deputy Editor-in-Chief), Aneta Piektut (Migration Editor). POLISH EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Agnieszka Gromkowska-Melosik, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland); Kazimierz Krzysztofek, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Poland); Roman Leppert, Kazimierz Wielki University (Poland); Renata Nowakowska-Siuta, ChAT (Poland); Inetta Nowosad, University of Zielona Góra (Poland); Ewa Przybylska, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland); Piotr Sałustowicz, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Poland); Bogusław Śliwerski, University of Lodz (Poland); Aldona Żurek, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Tony Blackshaw, Sheffield Hallam University (United King- dom); Theodore Chadjipadelis, Aristotle University Thessaloniki (Greece); Kathleen J. Farkas, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (US); Sribas Goswami, Serampore College, University of Calcutta (India); Bozena Hautaniemi, Stockholm University (Sweden); Kamel Lahmar, University of Sétif 2 (Algeria); Georg Kam- phausen, University of Bayreuth (Germany); Nina Michalikova, University of Central Oklahoma (US); Jaroslaw Richard Romaniuk, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (US); E. Wayne Ross, University of British Columbia (Canada); Luca Salmieri, Sapienza University (Italy); Nora Schleicher, Budapest Metropolitan Uni- versity (Hungary); Angela Scollan, Middlesex University London (United Kingdom); Alan Segal, Grande Prairie Regional College, Alberta (Canada), Darrick Smith, University of San Francisco (US); Paul Spicker, Robert Gor- don University (United Kingdom); Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Germany). Text revision: Aleksandra Cichocka DTP: SR team The original version of the journal is an online edition published on the following websites: http://societyregister.eu/ https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/sr Society Register is co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (under the ‘Support for scien- tific journals’ programme). This issue of Society Register is published under the patronage of Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission. Abstracting/indexing services: ARIANTA, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), CEJSH (The Central Euro- pean Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities), CEON (Centrum Otwartej Nauki), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS), EuroPub Database, PKP Index, IC Journals Master List, ROAD Directory of Open Access scholarly Resources, POL-index, SSOAR (Social Science Open Access Repository), Google Scholar, WorldCat, NUKAT. Published by: Editorial Office: Faculty of Sociology Faculty of Sociology Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Szamarzewskiego 89 C, 60-568 Poznań, Poland Szamarzewskiego 89 C, 60-568 Poznań, Poland E-mail: [email protected] Tel. +48 61 8292227 SOCIETY REGISTER 2020 / VOL. 4, NO. 2 EDITED BY HANNA MAMZER CONTENTS #INTRODUCTION HANNA MAMZER POSTMODERN SOCIETY AND COVID-19 PANDEMIC: OLD, NEW AND SCARY . 07 #ARTICLES SEBASTIÁN MORENO BARRENECHE SOMEBODY TO BLAME: ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE OTHER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK . 19 GORDANA STANKOVSKA, IMRAN MEMEDI & DIMITAR DIMITROVSKI CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 DISEASE, MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT . 33 MAŁGORZATA GRODZIŃSKA-JURCZAK, ALEKSANDRA KRAWCZYK, ANNA JURCZAK, MARIANNA STRZELECKA, MARIUSZ BOĆKOWSKI, & MARCIN RECHCIŃSKI ENVIRONMENTAL CHOICES VS. COVID-19 PANDEMIC FEAR – PLASTIC GOVERNANCE RE-ASSESSMENT . 49 KATHLEEN J. FARKAS & J. RICHARD ROMANIUK SOCIAL WORK, ETHICS AND VULNERABLE GROUPS IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS AND COVID-19 . 67 KRZYSZTOF BRZECHCZYN THE CORONAVIRUS IN LIBERAL AND ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACIES AND THE FUTURE OF GLOBALIZED WORLD . 83 SRĐAN MLADENOV JOVANOVIĆ DISCURSIVE GOVERNMENTAL AND MEDIA RESPONSE TO COVID-19: THE CASE OF SERBIA . 95 JANET HOY-GERLACH, MARY RAUKTIS & CHRISTINA NEWHILL (NON-HUMAN)ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIP: A CRUCIAL SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC . .109 MICHALINA GRZELKA ATTITUDES TOWARD VULNERABLE POPULATIONS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GAZETA.PL ONLINE COMMENT SECTIONS . 121 KACPER GRADOŃ CRIME IN THE TIME OF THE PLAGUE: FAKE NEWS PANDEMIC AND THE CHALLENGES TO LAW-ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY . 133 #DISCUSSIONS & RESEARCH NOTES GEETA SHYAM USING BREATHING AND MEDITATIVE TECHNIQUES TO DEAL WITH UNCERTAINTY AND ANXIETY: A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE . 149 ŁUKASZ RĄB & KAROLINA KETTLER PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN POST-PANDEMIC WORLD: SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM AND HOPES . 159 SOCIETY REGISTER 2020 / 4(2): 7-18 ISSN 2544–5502 DOI: 10.14746/sr.2020.4.2.01 POSTMODERN SOCIETY AND COVID-19 PANDEMIC: OLD, NEW AND SCARY HANNA MAMZER1 1 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Szamarzewskiego 89 C, 60-568 Poznań, Poland. ORCID: 0000- 0002-2251-7639, Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT: Critical events of a dangerous progression, such as the COVID-19 pan- demic, may become the turning points in the functioning of entire societies. Such events obviously foster changes. They disrupt the sense of ontological security, gener- ate fears and enforce change in the organization of social relations, also in a creative and positive manner. In addition to these effects, they also induce many others. They are a magnifier enabling you to see how modern societies are functioning. Therefore, a pandemic allows to see and describe more clearly the characteristics of postmodern human communities. Some of these characteristics (e.g. group functioning) are essen- tially constant and unchangeable for humans as a species. In turn, some features are very specific, characteristic for a given time, type of events and nature of participat- ing communities. In this text, based on the desk-research methodology and non-sys- tematic participant observation, I indicate the unchanging characteristics of human communities that emerge in the moments of crisis. I also present the specific features of postmodern communities that have been highlighted by the pandemic. I try to in- dicate the effects of the pandemic on social relations in the future. KEYWORDS: pandemic, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, postmodernity 8 SOCIETY REGISTER 2020 / VOL. 4., NO. 2 INTRODUCTION: ZOONOTIC DISEASES IN THE HUMAN WORLD The SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a large family of RNA coronaviruses and the disease it causes in humans has been described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 is a variant of the SARS virus which appeared in the human population in the mid-November 2002 and proved to be dangerous primarily due to its capability to transmit between humans. It’s a virus that has previously functioned in other living organisms. Originally in bats, then in palm civets (Paradoxurus) and racoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides), but for these organisms it was not dangerous. Threatful consequences for humans have resulted from the transmission of this virus to a man, most likely through the consumption of meat from infected wild animals sold on so-called wet markets in China. However, this virus disappeared quickly in the human population - around the middle of 2003 and therefore its pathogenic presence has impacted people for around 8-9 months. Another virus of a similar nature, that appeared chronologically later (after SARS), was the MERS virus (Gao, Yao, Yang et al. 2016). Also initially originated in bats and later transmitted to dromedary camels, for which it is lethal. The outbreak of this vi- rus caused the disease in more than 1600 patients in 26 countries, resulting in over 600 deaths (Gao, Yao, Yang et al. 2016). However, since the virus has not been able to transmit between humans, the risk of it is still low. Humans might become infected with MERS from direct or indirect contact with dromedaries. Although the mortality rate of people infected is high (35-40%), it is not really harmful to the human popula- tion outside of the Arabian Peninsula. Another zoonotic virus, transmitted to humans from chimpanzees in turn, is the lethal to humans HIV (Sharp, Hahn 2011). The transmission record to humans is the same as that of SARS and MERS. Other viruses living in animal organisms and causing such diseases as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, mad cow disease and avian flu have also been transmitted to humans in a similar way. The direct causes of transmission of these viruses is the consumption of meat and animal products. Infection of animals, in turn, takes place due to the man-made, unnatural living conditions of animals intend- ed for consumption. This enables the transmission of viruses between species that would have very limited possibilities of contact with each other