Community and social control during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Revealing an increase in interest for the community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper starts with a succinct compilation of the main practical and theoretical contexts in which the concept has been revitalized during the past year: World Health Organization’s guidelines, several SARS-Cov-2 disease control actions, studies of racial and ethnic diversity inequalities and studies of psycho-sociological impact of the pandemic. Next, some basic mechanisms notions are analyzed in regard to informal social control. The results from a research survey that took place between November 26th 2020 and January 26th 2021 on a lot of 1640 respondents revealed the existence of an optimism-generating base in regard to the community-level informal social control during special situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if some socio-demographic variables like gender, age and type of community, or some personal experience with COVID-19 variables like personal infection, family loss and neighborhood loss do not significantly associate with the acceptance of collective restrictions, it is our appreciation that there are premises for launching informal social control stimulation community interventions by empowerment or by community development.