The effects of the coronavirus on our daily lives

The effects of the coronavirus on our daily lives

Győr Office | Innovation

The second occasion of a series of events in Győr concerned with the impacts of the coronavirus disease took place on the 17th of March and focused on the social aspects of the pandemic. The invited expert of the discussion was Dr. Árpád Szörény Rab, Associate Professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest and Senior Researcher at the Institute of the Information Society at the National University of Public Service, while the event was moderated by Bence Kocsev, Head of the Győr Office of the Antall József Knowledge Center.

Although the social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are to a certain extent still unpredictable, the online discussion attempted to draw some tentative conclusions based on the experience accumulated during the previous period. The primary goal of the event was thus to get an overview of the ongoing social changes concomitant to the pandemic through the eyes of a social scientist focusing on the future trends of humanity.

By using primary data from Hungary, the discussion started with a brief exposé in which certain new and responsive strategies to the pandemic (like distant learning and teleworking) were presented. The conversation then addressed questions like the extent to which the current pandemic was foreseeable, or the durability of the ongoing structural transformations and their social impacts. Given the pandemic-led acceleration of digitalization and other trends, the participants of the event further elaborated on the predictable changes in the sphere of work and education. Questions like how culture could help the resilience of humanity in this situation, to what global transformations the current processes are leading to, and what will be the role of territorialization forms such as the nation-state in this processes were also touched upon.

The event was realised with the support of the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary and the Bethlen Gábor Foundation.

 

WATCH THE FULL DISCUSSION (AVAILABLE ONLY IN HUNGARIAN)

Győr Office