COVID-19: Individual Rights and Community Responsibilities

J. Michael Ryan is an award-winning teacher who has held academic positions at top-ranked universities across five continents. He is currently Associate Professor of sociology at Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan) and has previously held academic positions in Egypt, Portugal, Ecuador, and the USA. Before returning to academia, Dr. Ryan worked as a research methodologist at the National Center for Health Statistics (which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in Washington, DC, where he led multiple projects aimed at improving national statistical survey methodology. He is the author (with Serena Nanda) of COVID-19: Social Inequalities and Human Possibilities (Routledge 2022) and (co-)editor of more than 15 volumes, including COVID-19: Global Pandemic, Societal Responses, Ideological Solutions (Routledge 2021), COVID-19: Social Consequences and Cultural Adaptations (Routledge 2021), and Core Concepts in Sociology (Wiley 2019). He is also the founding editor of Routledge’s The COVID-19 Pandemic Series.

'This volume is like a mosaic or collage, a true work of art, that has been creatively and thoughtfully stitched together by editor J. Michael Ryan. Relying on a dazzling array of stellar contributors, this timely book is bound to become part of a larger conversation on what is perhaps the most complex phenomenon in our lives. The authors wrestle with the meaning and goals of community amidst increasingly individualistic values and priorities, encouraging readers to appropriately question the inherent paradoxes of the self and the society. A variety of undergraduate and graduate courses will benefit from incorporating this book.'Deborah Cohan, Professor of Sociology, University of South Carolina-Beaufort, USA'This ground-breaking volume, expertly edited by J. Michael Ryan, provides multi-disciplinary insights into the tensions that arose between individual rights and community responsibilities in a wide range of contexts and communities during the pandemic. It brings together international scholars addressing a plethora of challenges operating at different levels during this unprecedented health crisis. This is a volume that not only enables us to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially how people responded to it as individuals and communities, but also to prepare for future crises. It is an invaluable resource that scholars, students and policymakers alike must read.'Rusi Jaspal, Professor of Psychology, University of Brighton, UK'In this definitive guide to the complexities of human rights and community responsibilities in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading experts explore the role of (among other issues), social media in spreading misinformation during the global crisis. J. Michael Ryan deserves our gratitude for his academic leadership, both in this new volume as well as for serving as editor of The COVID-19 Pandemic Series.'Bryan S. Turner, Professor of Sociology, Australian Catholic University, Australia

• 1. Introduction 2. COVID-19, Individual Rights and Community Responsibilities 3. Balancing Rights with Responsibilities: Citizens' Responses to Expert Systems COVID-19 Infodemics 4. Going Viral: How social media increased the spread of COVID-19 misinformation 5. Masks, Mandates, and Mayhem: The Moral Panic Amidst a Pandemic 6. Demonizing the Nightlife: The ‘Pandemic Panic’ and youth responses in Portugal and Spain 7. Pandemic Politics and the Politics of the Pandemic 8. Spreading Disease: Risk mismanagement in the age of COVID-19 9. Taking Responsibility: COVID-19 and the possibilities of participatory communication during crisis 10. Reshaping Values and Priorities after the Lockdown Restrictions in Italy 11. Neighborhood Solidarity as a Local Response to the Emergency of the Pandemic: An explorative study of informal support in Italy 12. No Magic Bullets: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for the future of health and human rights