Katherine Twamley

Humera Iqbal

Charlotte Faircloth

COVID-19 turned the world as we knew it upside down, impacting families around the world in profound ways. Seeking to understand this global experience, Family in the Time of COVID brings together case studies from ten countries that explore how local responses to the pandemic shaped, and were shaped by, understandings and practices of family life. Carried out by an international team during the first year of the pandemic, these in-depth, longitudinal, qualitative investigations examined the impact of the pandemic on families and relationships across diverse contexts and cultures. They looked at how families made sense of complex lockdown laws, how they coped with collective worry about the unknown, managed their finances, fed themselves, and got to grips with online work and schooling to understand better how life had transformed (or not); their everyday joys and struggles in times of great uncertainty. Each case study follows the same methodology revealing experiences in Argentina, Chile, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the USA. They show how local government responses were understood and responded to by families, and how different cultures and life circumstances impacted everyday life during the pandemic. Ultimately the analysis gives an international perspective on a global phenomenon that transformed everyday life for millions of people.

International perspectives

Family in the Time of Covid

Sarah Neal

Carol Vincent

Do people make friends with those who are culturally and socially different to themselves? Friendship and Diversity explores the social relationships of adults and children living in highly diverse localities in London. The authors examine how social class and ethnic difference affects the friendships of children in primary schools and their parents. The book draws on original and in-depth conversations 8 and 9 year olds about their classroom relationships, with parents about their own and their children’s friendships, and with teachers about supporting children’s friendships at school. Through detailed discussions of friendships, everyday multiculture, and attitudes towards shared social space, cultural difference and social class, the authors reveal what these friendships tell us about the nature and extent of social mixing and social divisions in cities with diverse populations. Friendship and Diversity will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, geography and psychology, as well as education practitioners.

Humera Iqbal

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