Inequalities in everyday family life due to the Corona pandemic
Title: Lasting changes and inequalities in everyday family life due to the Corona pandemic.
Head: Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid, University of Hamburg, Robert Follmer, infas
Research Assistant: Lorenz Gaedke
Student Assistent: Ammar Cuk
The research project aims to identify the unequal effects of the Corona pandemic on everyday life of families from different socio-economic milieus. The focus is on the short- and medium-term consequences that result from the restrictions on employment and care opportunities, social contacts, and leisure activities in the organization of everyday life. The focus is also on the subjective experience and interpretation of the events by those affected.
The project's approach is based on the classic Marienthal study from the 1930s (Jahoda et al. 1975), in which researchers examined the effects of mass unemployment in the community of Marienthal. For the sociography of the changing collective and everyday familial life, they used a whole bundle of social science survey methods. The study was filmed in 1988 under the title 'Einstweilen wird es Mittag' by Karin Brandauer. It is still considered groundbreaking for social science research, however, the diversity of methods and innovativeness of approach used for this study have been somewhat lost. We would like to revive this tradition.
Bremerhaven and Schwerin, two cities of similar size in terms of population, were chosen for the project. However, they differ significantly in terms of average income and general living conditions: While Bremerhaven is considered to be socio-economically disadvantaged and is one of the cities with a poor infrastructure, Schwerin has a higher average household income and better infrastructure. We deliberately want to break with the usual east-west pattern.
For both cities, the Corona pandemic which began in March 2020 will be reconstructed on the basis of media coverage and available figures with regard to events that shape the discourse in the city, which political pronouncements emerged and how the case numbers developed. A standardized survey will be used to interview residents in each of the two cities - in the more affluent areas as well as in the more impoverished neighborhoods. In addition, selected families will be interviewed about their changed everyday living situation - in addition, their living environments will be documented photographically. Depending on the development of the pandemic, the surveys will be repeated at a later date and supplemented with on-site observations.
A film team will also be involved in the project, which will repeatedly accompany selected families on film over the course of the project - the reseach team will also play a significant role in this process. In this way, the quantitative and qualitative sociological approaches will be supplemented from an audiovisual perspective. In addition, the results and their development can be made accessible to a broader public.
Funding: VW Foundation
Duration: February 2021 to July 2022
Project Results:
Gaedke, Lorenz; Manderscheid, Katharina (2021): Ungleicher Familienalltag durch die Corona-Pandemie. Vortrag Im Rahmen eines digitalen Kolloquiums zum Thema soziologische Perspektiven auf die Corona-Krise, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), November 17th. The talk is also available as Podcast.
Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH (infas)/Universität Hamburg (2022): Familienalltag in der Corona-Pandemie – Vergleichende Perspektive von Eltern und Kindern. Project Report March 1, 2022, Bonn.
Gaedke, Lorenz; Manderscheid, Katharina (2022): Ungleicher Familienalltag durch die Corona-Pandemie. Written version of the presentation at the youth welfare committee in Bremerhaven on March 9, 2022, Hamburg.
Gaedke, Lorenz; Manderscheid Katharina (2022): Ergebnispaper Familienalltag und Corona. Short paper on the results of the qualitative project section (in German). August 2022.
Lorenz Gaedke; Ammar Ćuk; Katharina Manderscheid (2022): Ungleicher Familienalltag durch die Corona-Pandemie. WiSo-HH Working Paper Series. Hamburg (72). Available online in German under http://hdl.handle.net/10419/267218.