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Sylff News 2020: Best Wishes for the Holiday Season from the Sylff Association Secretariat!

December 17, 2020

View video message from Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa to all members of the Sylff community.

The year 2020 was one in which the world struggled to cope with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the Sylff Association secretariat launched an initiative called “COVID-19 Relief for Sylff Fellows,” even as applications for regular support programs had to be suspended.

The relief initiative provided financial support to 328 currently enrolled Sylff fellows from 56 Sylff institutions, enabling them to continue their studies and research toward their degrees. In a show of unity, about 30 members of the sylff community donated a total of more than US$13,000 for this initiative.

Though overseas travel was restricted, we were able to meet fellows online through our first virtual Sylff fellows get-togethers in October and November and a meeting with Chinese Sylff institutions to recognize new fellows in December. Fellows have also been sharing their pandemic-related insights and activities through the “Voices from the Pandemic” section of the Sylff website. We invite you to contribute your “Voice” as well. Please send us your article to sylff[a]tkfd.or.jp ([a] must be replaced by @.)

We will continue to do our utmost to support Sylff fellows during these challenging times. Please visit the Sylff website for announcements of new initiatives and programs.

We wish you all a healthy and safe 2021

Middle row, from left, Mari Suzuki (executive director, Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research), Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa, Izumi Kadono (president, Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research), Ichiro Kabasawa (executive director, Nippon Foundation). Top row, Masato Seko (senior program director, Nippon Foundation), Keita Sugai (director), Yoko Kaburagi (director). Bottom row, Sachiko Matsuoka, Yue Zhang, Tomoko Yamada, and Yumi Arai.

News from the Sylff Website in 2020

COVID-19 Relief for Sylff fellows

Thank You for Your COVID-19 Relief Donations (November 16)

COVID-19 Relief Provided to More Than 300 Fellows, but More Help Needed (September 10)
Applications Closed but Fundraising Continues for COVID-19 Relief for Sylff Fellows (August 3)

Online Fundraising Launched to Enable Sylff Fellows to Continue Their Studies (July 29)
Fundraising Launched to Enable Sylff Fellows to Continue Their Studies (July 21)

Start of COVID-19 Relief (July 17)

Sylff to Offer Fellows COVID-19 Emergency Support, Seeks Donations (June 10)

Support Programs

The status of Support Programs through March 31, 2021

Support Programs and COVID-19, Updated July 22, 2020 (August 6)

Support Programs and COVID-19 (April 6)

Before the outbreak of COVID-19

Mindfulness among Educators in South Africa and Promote Mother and Child Health in Puerto Rico (August 5)

SRA Awardees for Fiscal 2019, Second Round (February 20)

Sylff@Tokyo: Serbia Fellow Researching Legal Principles Connects with Experts in Japan (January 15)

Events

Online Meeting with Chinese Sylff Institutions to Recognize New Fellows (December 16)

Sharing COVID Experiences through Virtual Meetings (November 26)

Voices from the Sylff Community

“Voices” from the Pandemic: Call for Articles on COVID-19 (October 22)

Seventh “Voices” Booklet Now Online and in Print (April 22)

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Mental Health in Crisis: The Impact of COVID-19

December 17, 2020
By 24113

Elvisa Frrokaj is a psychologist-psychotherapist (MSc, PhD-C.) and a former Sylff fellow at the University of Athens. She discusses the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, describing the detrimental influence of the pandemic on mental health, which, as studies are beginning to show, is in jeopardy.

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The Importance of Solidarity in the Face of a Pandemic

In both my capacities as a person and a psychologist at the community level, I share the same passion with the SYLFF Association for making the world a better place. I utterly believe, as we say in Greece, that all people can contribute positively to a situation, each by adding a “small stone.” This means that by cooperating and thus becoming small parts of a large sum, it becomes much easier to tackle the challenges of life. As we humans are social animals, the value of a strong commitment to giving back to the community is of utmost importance to our physical and mental well-being.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was a very representative example of the aforementioned need for commitment to community and a very good opportunity to realize that by working together toward a common goal, we greatly increase the odds to achieving impressive results. The prevention of the spread of coronavirus depends on our individual responsibility, intertwined with collective-community responsibility.

Profound, Unprecedented Changes

When the first measures against the COVID-19 pandemic were enforced around the world, I was shocked, as I could foresee the impact the unprecedented restrictions in personal freedoms would have on public mental health. More particularly, in Greece between March and May 2020 we were in full lockdown. In order to leave home, we were required to send a text message stating the reason for moving. The same applies now for many countries in Europe, as a second lockdown is becoming part of our lives.

For the Western world, this state-enforced control over highly valued personal freedoms is unprecedented and takes a heavy toll on the individual’s mental state. The current situation is something that most of us could never have imagined to ever experience. In myself as well as in my clinical experience as a psychologist, I am seeing a broad palette of negative emotions: surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disappointment, and a sense of insecurity and vulnerability regarding our and others’ health. What is becoming more and more apparent is that COVID-19 will not leave us unscathed. The impact to mental health is happening; it is wide. and it is deep.

As a professional I am seeing the same symptoms, emotions, and thoughts. This new condition is affecting individuals at a personal, interpersonal, and communal level. The common feeling to all is that they do not know the duration of the profound changes they are forced to incorporate in their lives. “Until when?” and “After this, what?” are the most prevalent questions. The inability to make any safe predictions regarding the duration of the pandemic increases the stress on people, who feel helpless due to the perceived lack of control of the situation. For all these reasons, mental health and well-being are in jeopardy.

Scientific Studies Confirm the Observations

The crisis caused by the ongoing pandemic is a new, unknown, and unprecedented challenge that seems to have mentally affected a vast number of people. Recent studies have shown that COVID-19 constitutes a new stress factor or a trauma (Gorwood and Fiorillo 2020), causing several problems, such as intense stress of the unknown, frustration, anger, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and several other mental disorders (Shuja, Aqeel, Jaffar, and Ahmed 2020). Patients with mental disorders seem to have been affected more. A strong correlation has been documented between higher exposure to the effects—direct or indirect—of the pandemic and loneliness, depression, and anxiety disorders (Hoffart, Ebrahimi, and Johnson 2020).

The mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may be profound, and there are suggestions that suicide rates will rise, although this is not inevitable. Suicide is likely to become a more pressing concern as the pandemic spreads and has longer-term effects on the general population, the economy, and vulnerable groups. Preventing suicide therefore needs urgent consideration (Gunnell et al. 2020). An area of key concern is the potential of the conditions caused by the pandemic to exacerbate existing psychiatric conditions and influence the manifestation of their symptoms. For instance, patients with paranoid psychosis seemed to have increased illusions under particular COVID-19-related conditions (Coogan, Faltraco, and Thome 2020).

As psychologists at the community clinical level, Ms. Iliana Fylla (psychiatrist, scientific director of the Mobile Mental Health Unit of Child and Adolescent Center, KMPSY, on the island of Chios, Greece) and I studied the consequences of COVID-19 on the psychopathology of our patients after the lockdown that was enforced from March to May 2020. Our studies documented the worsening of mental health among a sample of 450 patients of KMPSY. Thirty-nine of the patients claimed to have experienced a worsening of their mental health after the pandemic. Figures 1 and 2 below illustrate these findings. This study was published at the 28th Panhellenic Psychiatric Conference held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from October 29 to November 1, 2020.

Figure 1. Mental Health Disorders (ICD-10)[1]

Figure 2. Symptomatology after Covid-19 (ICD-10)

More specifically, Figure 1 shows the percentage of the symptoms of mental health patients that were claimed to have worsened. Among all our psychiatric patients (total patients: 450), 39 patients presented a worsening of psychopathology. Figure 2 shows in detail the degrees of worsening of mental health symptoms after lockdown. Thirty-nine of 450 psychiatric patients seemed to have more illusions, delusions, suicidal thought, sexual disorders, and so forth.

In sum, the results of our study confirmed the findings of other studies and showed that 11.5% of mental health patients at KMPSY presented recrudescence in their psychopathology (79.0% women, 20.5% men).

Reviews have shown that this pandemic has been compared to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, wars, and international mass conflicts, but in these situations the threat is recognized easily, whereas in pandemic the threat is invisible, could be anywhere, and could be transmitted from any person nearby (Gorwood and Fiorillo 2020). The pandemic has created many problems. In this study patients with “affective disorders” presented more intense symptoms. Some of them also had suicidal ideation, increase of compulsions, illusions, and delusion. The best way to confront these consequences is to reinforce and enhance the care support network.

Actions for Public Mental Health

In April 2020 the Psychology Association of Chios took a series of actions to raise awareness in the local community about COVID-19 and foster and reinforce the mental health of people with useful tips and advice. As part of these actions, we gave an interview on local television (https://bit.ly/3519HHl), in which we talked about the psychological impact of the pandemic on young and older people. Understandably, people experience negative feelings such as anger, despair, and depressive symptoms that are caused by the lockdown (April–May 2020). Lockdown affects not only mental health patients but also people who have not had mental health issues before. We tried to propose constructive ways of better managing the situation.

After that, we created a small video (https://bit.ly/3evzCtH ) as an advertisement with a social message—“Keep the coronavirus away and be safe”—in which each psychologist expressed feelings and emotions about COVID-19. Finally, we published articles with tips on how to confront the situation. This multifaceted approach helped people in the local community to stay positive, reduce stress, and avoid panic. I believe that such organized action from professional and scientific organizations can effectively help people confront the situation and the impact of COVID-19.

Useful Tips

Read reliable sources that are based on scientific data to avoid misinformation, which implies more stress.
This situation is unprecedented on a global level. The feeling of “helplessness” is expected but renders us more vulnerable mentally. Try to find ways to manage this feeling by being creative or dealing with things that make you happy and positive.
Find alternative ways of communicating with friends by socializing and having fun using tools that modern technology offers (e.g., Skype, Zoom, Google Meet). It is an opportunity to communicate with our friends and other people or to spend your time by watching interesting videos on YouTube.
Listen to music, read a book, or exercise to improve mental health and well-being.
Provide support and dedicate time to elderly people who may feel lonely or to your children and family. Try to show empathy if they are afraid or help them psychologically by listening carefully to their concerns and trying to rationalize them.
Be positive and focus on what you can control.

To Sum Up

This undoubtedly is a difficult and challenging period, but we can find ways to adapt and be happier living through it, even though there are radical changes in our daily life. It is crucial to focus on the present, in the “here and now,” and to the things that we can control. It is a period that shall pass and may present a good chance for all of us to treasure those little things in our lives, the most precious, which sometimes we take for granted or ignore altogether.

Let’s hope we will get through it soon.
Be strong and take care!

References

Coogan, A.N., F. Faltraco, M. Fischer, and J. Thome. 2020. “COVID-19 Paranoia in a Patient Suffering from Schizophrenic Psychosis: A Case Report.” Psychiatry Research 288 (11).

Fiorilo, A. and P. Gorwood. 2020. “The Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Implications for Clinical Practice.” European Psychiatry 63 (1), e32: 1–2.

Gunnell, D., E. Arensman, K. Hawton, and L. Appleby. 2020. “Suicide Risk and Prevention during the COVID-19 {andemic.” The Lancet Psychiatry 7 (6).

Hoffart, A., S. U. Johnson, and O. V. Ebrahimi. 2020. “Loneliness and Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk Factors and Associations with Psychopathology.” Retrieved from psyarxiv.com/j9e4q. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/j9e4q

Shuja, K.H., M. Aqeel, A. Jaffar, and A. Ahmed. 2020. “COVID-19 Pandemic and Impending Global Mental Health Implications.” Psychiatria Danubina 32 (1): 32–35.

[1] ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Online Meeting with Chinese Sylff Institutions to Recognize New Fellows

December 16, 2020

The Sylff Association secretariat organized an online ceremony to confirm new fellows in China and hear presentations by one representative each from the 10 Sylff institutions in the country. The institutions are Fudan, Jilin, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Peking, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Sun Yat-sen Universities. Reports were also made by board and steering committee members.

Among the guests invited to the meeting were newly appointed General Secretary of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) Wang Yongli and other association members. The CEAIE works with the Sylff Association secretariat to help the 10 Chinese Sylff institutions implement and improve the Sylff program at each institution.

An online meeting of Sylff Association members in China and Tokyo.

Chairman Yohei Sasakawa of the Sylff Association and The Nippon Foundation thanked the universities in his opening remarks for soundly and prudently implementing the Sylff program since its launch in China in 1992 (at the first five universities above) and 1994 (at the other five). Noting the country’s tremendous growth over the past three decades, he emphasized the need to update the Sylff program to match the current state of China’s society and economy, calling for the generous provision of fellowship to a few, exceptional students, rather than smaller stipends to a large number of fellows.

Chairman Sasakawa making his opening remarks.

Wang Yongli concurred, saying that the CEAIE will cooperate with the 10 institutions toward the goal of making the Sylff program in China more selective.

Mari Suzuki, a member of the Sylff Association secretariat and Executive Director of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, encouraged Sylff fellows to participate actively in the global Sylff community by taking full advantage of the support programs and networking initiatives offered by the secretariat.

A presentation by General Secretary Wang.

Representatives from the 10 institutions then explained their selection procedures and results for 2020, with all institutions confirming that the process was competitive, fair, open, and rigid. This was followed by presentations by one Sylff fellow each from the 10 universities. They detailed their academic and social engagement achievements to date and vowed to make a contribution to society in the future.

The fellows were all outstanding students, many of them being recipients of governmental and other global fellowships. The Nanjing fellow was a poet and read one of his works during the meeting. And the fellow from Sun Yat-sen related an episode of having worked as a volunteer at a Hansen’s disease facility. Others echoed Sylff’s founding concept of regarding the world as one family, with all of humankind being brothers and sisters, and of taking the initiative to promote international understanding and world peace.

The ceremony will continue to be held annually to strengthen ties among all stakeholders involved in the operation of the Sylff program in China.

“See you next year!”

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Sharing COVID Experiences through Virtual Meetings

November 26, 2020

The Sylff Association secretariat hosted its first virtual Sylff fellows’ meetings on October 27 and November 6 (Japan time) with the participation of fellows who received COVID-19 relief this summer. The meetings were an opportunity for pre-registered participants from around the world to get together online and share their experiences.

Group photo on October 27.

Group photo on November 6.

With the facilitation of secretariat members, fellows described how they are coping with the difficulties and challenges caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 and exchanged views on what new measures would facilitate their academic research and leaderships development initiatives during the pandemic.

Many participants commented that COVID-19 relief was a source of both financial and moral support that promoted a sense of belonging to the Sylff community. They had been concerned about disruptions to their research, with many being forced to change their data collection methods. Suggestions for additional Sylff support included new sources of research funding, mentorship and networking opportunities among current and graduated fellows, and theme-based virtual meetings.

The meeting “was perfectly organized and managed . . . so that we could express ourselves,” one fellow said on the feedback sheet. “The atmosphere was safe, welcoming and engaging. I met the Sylff fellows from all around the world and could share my research topic and exchange our views. I realized that I was not alone in this delicate situation of pandemic and that we can all together search for solutions.”

“I would most certainly recommend this kind of meeting because they help build a strong community of fellows,” another said. “Fruitful dialogue can lead to great ideas that bring positive changes to this world.”

The secretariat, too, was happy to meet the fellows online and to hear their views directly. We are currently reexamining our support programs in order to better respond to their needs under the pandemic. Please look for announcements of future events and new Sylff initiatives on the Sylff website.

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The State of South African Education: Covid-19 Implosion Brings Good News and Bad News

November 24, 2020
By 25517

How much worse will things get in our education system? Teachers are familiar with the effects of extended periods of downtime, like that during the Covid-19 lockdown. The longer children are out of school, the more difficult it is to get them back into the routine and into the headspace needed for learning.

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I have some good news and, unfortunately, some bad news too. Which would you like to hear first? Most people want the bad news first so that they can move on to the good news and end on a high. And this is the formula I will use. The bad news is, unfortunately, very bad: Take cover! Tsunami warning for the SA education system! Get ready for waves of poorly educated children exiting the education system over the next decade or longer.

But how much worse could things really get in the education sector? Have we not already reached rock bottom? No, I suspect that we still have some way to go. One of the unintended consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa has been to push our already ailing education system to an unprecedented low.

“Children are not the face of this pandemic. But they are at risk of being among its biggest victims… in some cases, by mitigation measures that may inadvertently do more harm than good. The harmful effects of this pandemic will not be distributed equally; they are expected to be most damaging for children in the poorest countries, in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations.” – United Nations Policy Brief, 15 April 2020.

Covid-19 will naturally affect those who are the most disadvantaged to the greatest extent. This is also true in the field of education. The renowned psychologist Edward Thorndike’s “Law of Learning” provides further support for this. It states that the more one learns, the more learning one can achieve in the future. Learning generates further interest in learning.

In fact, at a biological level we know that being exposed to interesting ideas and being curious triggers the human body’s narcotic-like dopamine chemicals to flood the brain, a positive stimulus that guarantees the individual would want to recreate these experiences.

Conversely, one who has not been exposed to learning opportunities would be less inclined to seek out cognitive stimulation. Thus, children who are described as educationally disadvantaged and were physically locked out of the education system and left to their own devices during the Covid-19 crisis are at much greater risk of not making adequate school progress in the future.

What do we know about the effects of extended periods of downtime on children’s learning? Teachers are very familiar with such scenarios as they often see a tailing off of children’s learning after long holidays and even long weekends. The longer children are out of school, the more difficult it seems to be to get them back into the routine and into the headspace needed for learning.

Teachers at the training working with the BCP materials.

In these situations, teachers constantly have to revert back to previously taught content. These learning setbacks might not be permanent, but they impact future learning.

Human cognitive development is a complex and individual process. How do we start to intervene in it?

The good news is that we have accumulated a lot of knowledge about this process and that cognitive science does have a fairly good grasp of the fundamental principles that guide effective teaching and learning.

Most importantly, we know that human beings are cognitively modifiable, thanks to the pioneering and extraordinary work of the late cognitive psychologist Professor Reuven Feuerstein. The implications of this seemingly unassuming statement are profound for educators and for children not already in the learning loop. The notion of cognitive modifiability gives substance to the cliché that “all children can learn”. For too long we have been dominated by a deterministic, all-or-nothing view of human cognition; either you have the “smarts” or you don’t.

Children who are working with the BCP materials.

This recognition of cognitive modifiability has resulted in the development of cognitive intervention programmes, such as Instrumental Enrichment, Bright Start and Basic Concepts Programme. While traditional curative (remedial) programmes aim to close gaps in content learning, cognitive programmes aim to promote the growth of cognitive structures that are needed for higher order and abstract reasoning.

But is it possible to enhance the development of cognitive processes inside the classroom and can teachers do this? It is our experience that emergent cognitive structures can be enhanced and teachers can be trained to become mediators of learning. Mediated learning differs vastly from traditional “chalk-and-talk” pedagogical approaches on both a philosophical as well as humanistic level.

Human mediators are caring, engaged, open, interactive and intensively involved with their children in the classroom. Young children happen to need these kinds of engagements to free up their involvement and participation. Children who take risks and share their thinking and are able to express their ideas are set on a path to improve their thinking, to reflect on it and consider the views of others.

So why are such cognitive educational approaches not being used more in learning institutions, particularly for young children who are not already engaged in learning and might have cognitive vulnerabilities?

Children who are busy with an activity related to the programme

The Basic Concepts Programme is being extended across Grade R classes throughout the Northern Cape. The Northern Cape Department of Education has been forward-looking in helping to establish solid cognitive foundations needed for enhanced learning. There is an understanding that cognitive development and the school curriculum are not mutually exclusive activities, but both are integral. In a pilot study we have found almost universal improvements in school readiness of children who have been exposed to this cognitive programme during their school day.

The disruptions to teaching and learning in these very unsettled Covid-19 times might, in fact, allow those invested in education to pause, take stock and re-evaluate our understanding and approaches.

How does our practice as educators align with what we know about learning from cognitive science, and are we following the best evidence-based practices that will help children to improve their learning? It might be that the unintended outcome of the crisis also mobilises those involved in education to develop a range of special interventions to re-establish an interest in learning.

All children can learn and make educational progress, but it might be that some children need a more thoughtful, intentional and mediational approach to successfully re-enter the educational mainstream.

This article acknowledges the Douglas Murray Trust and Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund for their generous support of the work done by the author with the Northern Cape Department of Education.

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Reprinted, with a lead by the author, from DAILY MAVERICK which is one of the largest and most credible online newspapers in South Africa; https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-11-02-the-state-of-south-african-education-covid-19-implosion-brings-good-news-and-bad-news/.

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Thank You for Your COVID-19 Relief Donations

November 16, 2020

The Sylff Association secretariat is happy to report that over 30 members of the Sylff community donated a total of 1,366,400 yen (approximately US$13,000) to support Sylff fellows affected by COVID-19. Thank you all for giving so generously. The online fundraising system to accept donations via credit card is now closed.

The donations are being used to help defray fellows’ living expenses and encourage them to continue their studies and research at their home Sylff institutions despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

COVID-19 has seriously disrupted the research activities of many Sylff fellows and could affect their chances of emerging as future leaders. The support offered by the Sylff community not only helped finance their studies but, as reported by several fellows, gave them a sense of hope and belonging.

Once again, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made a contribution to COVID-19 Relief for Sylff Fellows.

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“Voices” from the Pandemic: Call for Articles on COVID-19

October 22, 2020

The Sylff Association secretariat is seeking submissions of articles about COVID-19 to be published in the “Voices from the Sylff Community” section of the Sylff website. We hope to showcase the insights and activities of Sylff fellows related to the global pandemic and its social impact, the sharing of which may help others to better cope with the difficult circumstances. The articles will also be published in e-book form in 2021.

Articles should describe your insights, analyses, or activities related to the novel coronavirus. They can be written from either a professional or personal point of view. We will accept articles that have been printed in other media.
Two COVID-related articles have already posted on the Sylff website:

“Providing Space for Good Conversations on YouTube amid the COVID-19 Pandemic” by James Martyn

“What COVID-19 Can Teach Us about Prison: Reflections on Criminal Policy and the Words of Albert Camus” by Rui Caria

Submission Guidelines

Length: Approximately 1,500 words (may be longer depending on content)
Quotes: Please cite sources if you include quotes
Photos: Digital photos to go with the article are encouraged but not mandatory
Deadline: February 28, 2021
Submission: Send your article to sylff@tkfd.or.jp. The email subject line should include “VOICES COVID-19”

We are looking forward to receiving your “Voice” about the pandemic.

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[BigDataSur] “WhatsApper-ing” alone will not save Brazilian political disarray: An investigation of the affordances of WhatsApp under Bolsonarism

October 16, 2020
By 27510

This article reflects on the role of “WhatsAppers”, defined as social activists appropriating WhatsApp as a primary platform to organize and communicate, in relation with the rise of Bolsonarism in Brazil. Affordances of WhatsApp usage by social actors are explored in the light of responses to Bolsonarism, along with their implications in the current time of crisis.

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Photo credits: Lo Cole / The Economist

The research illustrated explores the affordances of WhatsApp and its appropriation by the WhatsAppers in Brazil, here defined as social activists appropriating WhatsApp as a primary platform to organize and communicate. I explore the importance of the Global South context in shaping such affordances, focusing on local epistemologies which bypass the structure of mainstream Brazilian media. As illustrated elsewhere, the empirical analysis combined different qualitative methods, yielding insights into the communication and action repertoire of the group studied, not without considering reflections on research ethics and their implications in the context studied.

WhatsAppers: Towards a new research agenda

This research stems from an analysis of the social interactions of UnidosContraOGolpe (UCG), a leftist group in Brazil, which was a WhatsApp “private group” emerged in 2016 to oppose the controversial impeachment of the then-president Dilma Rousseff. The case study resulted into the first empirical MA dissertation in Latin America to explore digital activism on WhatsApp private chats as an emerging field of political action. To do so, a ‘meso-micro’ analysis was used – on the meso level, to identify the modus operandi of group interactions and, on the micro level, to capture individual motivations, tensions, and expectations. At the core of the investigation, the researcher’s identity was disclosed, following social actors through their chat environment and adopting an ‘engaged’ approach, whereby the research is designed with the goal of empowering social actors. In practical terms, this inspired a triangulation of qualitative methods, including digital ethnography (to identify and analyze the practice of social actors inside the chat domain, through a long “zoom” perspective on social interactions in the private chat group), content analysis of selected posts (to understand how the group emerged organically and self-organized in a contingent manner) and fifteen in-depth semi-structured interviews (to elicit values and motivations from the perspective of individual active participants).

This dissertation argues that WhatsAppers are characterized by their ability to appropriate the chat group as a means to participate in political life. Engagement with political activism becomes an intimate and familiar affair, mediated by a personal and omnipresent device, that enables a unique approach to mobilization. In general lines, everyone could be a WhatsApper, including those not previously politically active. A WhatsApper could be someone who already is entwined in other social media networks of politics and mobilization or not; they can be someone from a poor, middle or rich class background. In other words, WhatsAppers interact digitally with others, combining online and offline political actions. Through the lens of digital sociology, the case studied reveals that WhatsApp stands out as a platform for civic engagement, promoting new spaces of digital activism for three main reasons: the chat app (1) affords structurally new forms of political participation and collective engagement, (2) forges communities of mutual interest, and (3) promotes collective decision-making and individual autonomous actions on a small scale. However, drawbacks are found in howbots can influence conversations on WhatsApp, fake users can hijack chats, and group members may be threatened by surveillance attacks.

Bolsonarism: into the Brazilian political crisis

In 2019, the first year of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, Brazil has seen a record deforestation and a drop to zero applications of environmental fines. Bolsonaro nominated a human rights minister who was well-known for preaching sexual abstinence as a state policy. Sons of the president are under investigation of crime and corruption. Also, Bolsonaro has nominated a secretary of culture extolling Nazi propaganda. Moreover, every week the Brazilian “anti-president” openly attacks the press, and recently was considered the worst leader to struggle against the Coronavirus pandemic.

The political scenario in which Bolsonarism surges is widely recognized as reflecting a crisis of political representation and the widespread disbelief in politics and traditional parties. Bolsonarism can be understood as “a political phenomenon that transcends the figure of Bolsonaro and is characterized by an ultra-conservative worldview, returning to traditional values and nationalist and patriotic rhetoric”. Facing this scenario, an urgent question should be addressed: what is really happening to Brazilian democracy?

Looking back, looking forward

Brazil is an extremely unequal country along multiple dimensions that include internet access. Part of the semi-illiterate population gathers their information almost solely through visual messages, audios and videos from thousands of WhatsApp groups, thanks to the “zero rating” fees provided by telecom companies that replaced more expensive short-text messages. The larger context of Latin America makes an excellent test bed for the study of WhatsApp social interactions because “96 percent of Brazilians with access to a smartphone use WhatsApp as primary method of interpersonal communication”. According to the Reuters Institute, 53 percent of Brazilians use “ZapZap” (as the app is commonly known in the country) to find and consume news. Everyday citizens also use “ZapZap” to order pizza, stay in touch with family, transfer money, make doctor appointments, learn, spread gossip and date.

While the leftist “UCG” WhatsAppers were calling for political action, far right activists were articulating themselves in WhatsApp private groups and beyond, also combining online and offline activities. Progressive sectors were as well unable to build a national digital campaign, with very rare exceptions, such as small local initiatives like UCG. Consequently, the potential of digital activism on chat apps was later weaponized by far-right groups that not only appropriated public and private groups on and with WhatsApp, but also acted as pipeline to other social media. Digital information became a “weapon” that is still used in “out of control” mode nowadays by Bolsonaro’s supporters, taking advantage of the high penetration of WhatsApp in Brazil, and facilitated by the limited digital literacy of the population. In fact, Bolsonaro ran a successful campaign in 2018 based on a combination of bottom-up authoritarianism and digital populism. His supporters were helped by bots to spread misleading content “weaponizing” various WhatsApp groups.

COVID-19: creative WhatsAppers from the margins

This case presents important implications for the ongoing crisis. Brazilian citizens are currently bombarded with COVID-19 related disinformation and facing a chaotic portrait, while far right activists occupied larges spaces on digital networks before and after the 2018 elections. Moreover, there are lessons learned from the inability to stop Bolsonarism’s digital army, namely: send messages which everyday citizens can trust. Today, Brazilians behave more and more like consumers instead of citizens, trusting the market more than science – perhaps this is precisely the gap that paves our country for thousands of deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.

Brazilian mainstream media are currently discussing who might be a potential presidential candidate for the next elections in 2022. However, a deeper question is whether democratic values will still be upheld at that time. The composition of Bolsonaro’s government reminds us that Brazilian’s young democracy is now more capitalist, colonialist, patriarchaland is heading towards a dangerous and irresponsible political adventure, and the outcomes are unpredictable. During the pandemic, social distancing, hand washing, hand sanitizers, masks, respirator machines and lockdowns are privileges of the Global North, while in the South, many will not even have access to minimum services.

As the title suggests, using WhatsApp for chatting and hanging out alone will not solve the political Brazilian disarray, but perhaps creative WhatsAppers could provide a spark to create national-transnational solidarity. Namely: high speed participatory decision-making to deliver groceries, collect money, produce masks, share scientific information, mobilize against COVID-19 related disinformation, reach poor families and fight for emergent democratic imaginaries. The UCG case study still works as a well-informed internal communication strategy for connecting and activating social solidarity networks that grounds for hope, especially because it reveals the battlefield of political struggle that enables scientific shared information, civic engagement, collective mobilization, and solidarity. Lastly, the coordination of online activities combined with actions on the ground by WhatsAppers triggers digital activism in times of pandemic.

About the author

Sérgio Barbosa

Sérgio Barbosa is a PhD candidate in the program “Democracy in the Twenty-First Century” in the Centre for Social Studies (CES), at the University of Coimbra and a Sylff fellow sponsored by Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. He is a member of the Technopolitics – a “Latin” research network connecting Brazil and Ecuador with Spain, Portugal and Italy. His research explores the emerging forms of political participation vis-à-vis the possibilities afforded by chat apps, with emphasis on WhatsApp for digital activism and social mobilization

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Silvia Masiero for her careful review (and beyond) and wishes to thank Charlotth Back and Jeroen de Vos for their comments and suggestions. He extends his gratitude also to Stefania Milan and Emiliano Treré for launching Big Data from the South initiative. This blogpost has received funding from the Sylff (Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund) Research Abroad – SRA fellowship sponsored by the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research.

Reprinted, with a lead by the author, from DATACTIVE Big Data Sur blog, https://data-activism.net/2020/06/bigdatasur-whatsapper-ing-alone-will-not-save-brazilian-political-disarray-an-investigation-of-the-affordances-of-whatsapp-under-bolsonarism/.

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Providing Space for Good Conversations on YouTube amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

September 18, 2020
By 25157

James Martyn completed his Doctorate at Massey University in New Zealand in 2014–16 as a Sylff fellow. He currently works as a psychologist at the Department of Corrections in Tauranga, the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, and privately as a mental health consultant. Amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, James has been utilizing his expertise in creating space for good conversations through a short video series on YouTube, covering such useful topics as stress and better habits under the difficult circumstances.

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Introduction: Good Intentions

I have always wanted to be the sort of person who can be helpful in a time of need; to know not only that I can help if needed but that the type of help I can provide is useful. It is one of the things that led me to become a psychologist. But if I am honest with myself, there are many days when I feel like I fall short. As I sit and reflect on life, I often feel an internal pull toward doing more for others: to give more, be more, and have more of an impact. Too often, I think of the “big” things I wish I could do or might do in the future to be useful. However, during these times, it is easy to discount the small and perhaps equally important things we can do today to be helpful. It is my intention to focus not only on the big things in the future but also on the small things and the small ways in which I can be more outwardly focused today.

Coronavirus: Different Boats, Same Storm

Amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, we have all witnessed and experienced a rapidly changing world. These changes have contributed to a wide range of very real challenges that we have either experienced or observed in ourselves and in others. Whether the challenges were experienced emotionally, physically, socially, psychologically, or spiritually, there are very few people who have not been affected in some way by the recent circumstances.

While I think it is a misconception that we are all in the same boat together during this pandemic, I certainly feel we are all experiencing the same storm. At times the figurative rain and wind have felt unrelenting. During this time some of our boats, for a variety of reasons, continue to fare better or worse than others. But like all storms, this too will pass—although this particular storm will be long remembered. The storm’s gift and curse is that it has brought to our attention a number of areas, personally, nationally, and even globally, that may require some repair to ensure our safety and the safety of others in the future.

In our small country of New Zealand, with just over five million in population, it is easy to see that we have been incredibly lucky as a whole, despite the suffering of many. As of this writing, our country has been fortunate enough to be able to lift almost all of its coronavirus restrictions, despite some fluctuates across the country. However, New Zealand, as with many other countries, continues to face struggles. The increased stressors, pressures, and uncertainty that have arisen alongside the implications of the coronavirus have had and continue to have an impact on many people’s mental health and well-being.

How Can I Be Helpful?

Just a few months ago, our country, like many others, entered full lockdown. We began to face the challenges of social and community disruption, financial pressures, and interruptions to many aspects of our daily lives on a scale that we had not seen before. While many people did not experience significant difficulties, for others the impact and uncertainty brought considerable stress.

As a psychologist, I continue to work with adaptations to my day-to-day activities. In one of my roles, I work as a consultant with a friend and colleague at Lumind.co.nz. Lumind is a small start-up consulting and training company that we created with the intention to provide accessible, useable, and relevant evidence-based psychological information to businesses and community groups. Our aim is to help groups to “mind what matters.” Talking via Zoom, at one point we discussed the likely implications of the coronavirus on mental health. We wanted to help in some way, to find a place to step outside of our comfort zone. Together, we have often discussed the “big” ideas and dreams about what we can pursue. In doing so we have dreamt, strategized, and reflected, often at the expense of acting in the short term. This is not to say that taking time to think big is unhelpful, but I feel our focus on the future can at times lead to missing the smaller opportunities that lie in front of us. Consequently, as we spoke about wanting to be useful in this moment of the coronavirus pandemic, we decided to put aside our preconceptions of having a polished product and simply try to give some of our knowledge and resources to others. We tried to be useful in our own small way.

Our Mental Health and Technology Focus

Our particular area of interest at our business, Lumind, is the intersection between mental health and technology. It is our view that at present, psychological resources are not delivered effectively. Access to evidence-based psychology assessment and intervention in the community is typically bottlenecked by limited service resources. This is due in part to numerous barriers that surround current mental health treatment and delivery, which have contributed to discrepancies between treatment needs, availability, and uptake. Consequently, too many people who could benefit from psychological resources and greater well-being ultimately miss out on or are not afforded equal opportunity for access. It is our view that technology is one critical component that can help disseminate evidenced-based psychological resources and potentially improve access to appropriate resources in the future. We feel that this may subsequently work to improve mental health and well-being for many who may have otherwise missed out.

Mental health and well-being has become an increasingly popular topic in recent years. New Zealand was the first country in the world to develop a “Wellbeing Budget.” Additionally, the number of well-being-focused websites, applications, podcasts, books, and other resources has grown exponentially. On the whole, this is a great thing. However, not all content is created equal. It is our view that there is a lot of information available through technology that has good intentions, but not all are evidence based. In some cases, the content and delivery method may even lead to a negative outcome. As such, we feel that psychologists should have a voice in the well-being and technology area. Lumind wants to be part of the conversation.

Creating the “Minding What Matters” Video Series

With this in mind, outside of our normal work, we decided to do something small using technology—something that utilized our expertise. As with any time you put yourself out to the public, it was very easy to think of the reasons not to go ahead. For instance, there was plenty of other content available online; our video and audio quality was relatively low; given that our content was casual and unscripted, we may say something incorrect or that may be judged differently than our intention. However, when we came back to our intention—to show support to our community in a time of need—we felt that the benefit was worth the effort.

As psychologists, we are not trying to pretend we “have it all together.” We understand that we have our own paths climbing our own personal mountains with their own unique set of challenges. However, from our vantage point on our mountain, we may be able to see your position from a different angle. Our perspective, as well as the skills we have developed along the way, may be valuable to share. As such, my colleague and I decided to put together a short video series titled “Minding What Matters.” Each video was a casual, lighthearted, and short conversation with other psychologists. Together, we chatted around a particular topic area that we thought may be helpful during COVID-19 and beyond.

The result was a series of nine videos available on YouTube with such topics as “virtually supporting someone who is struggling,” “dealing with anxiety and worry during difficult times,” “parenting tips during stressful times,” and “why bad habits strike during stress.” In total, we have had around 900 views so far. Our intention has never been to obtain media views, but to be useful. It has been great to see that a few people have found it beneficial along the way. We have had positive feedback from people in care-type roles and helping professions, strangers, parents, and our friends. That is all we could have asked for.

Conclusion: Remembering That Small Steps Matter

We are well aware there is better content with better quality available. But I think there continues to be space for both small and big projects; space for good conversations around relevant topics and based on evidence-based principles. In the future, it would be great to work more in this space, perhaps even take more risk and step further out of the comfort zone. But it has been a valuable experiment, one that has taught me to not take things too seriously and that taking small steps to help others today may at times be more effective than waiting for the “right time” to make many big steps to help others in the future. I think there are a lot of opportunities out there, ready for psychologists and other professions to share their skill set. I am learning to be bolder and to open my eyes to what these opportunities may be, both now and in the future. I hope you are too.

Lumind Channel on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFr_ZQRaUGIVatjTrdVlbYg

Lumind is a start-up psychology consulting and training company consisting of co-directors Dr. James Martyn and Matt Hegan. Lumind aims to provide accessible, useable, and relevant evidence-based psychological information to businesses and community groups. Lumind’s purpose is to help people focus their “mind on what matters.”

Episode 1: Why This Series
https://youtu.be/vppYkanPXXI

Episode 2: Being Who You Want to Be
https://youtu.be/vppYkanPXXI

Episode 3: Anxiety and Worry during Difficult Times and Lockdown

Episode 4: Mindfulness—Calm in the Chaos of Lockdown
https://youtu.be/ztv625cG1T4

Episode 5: Psychologist Parenting Tips during COVID Lockdown

Episode 6: Mental and Physical Performance during Lockdown
https://youtu.be/TRnck0X_qVE

Episode 7: Virtually Supporting Someone Who May be Struggling

Episode 8 (BONUS): Psychologist Learns from 6-year-olds—How to Be a Good Friend in Lockdown

Episode 9. Why Bad Habits Strike during Times of Stress
https://youtu.be/RKMrPMR6t4Y

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COVID-19 Relief Provided to More Than 300 Fellows, but More Help Needed

September 10, 2020

To counter the negative impact of COVID-19, the Sylff Association secretariat is providing emergency financial support called “COVID-19 Relief for Sylff Fellows” to ensure that fellows are able to continue their studies toward their degrees at their home Sylff institutions.

So far, we have mobilized internal resources to provide relief to more than 300 fellows to cover their living expenses for about three months. However, we require more financial resources to complete this relief effort. Under the circumstances, we are asking the members of the Sylff community for donations.

The secretariat hopes that former Sylff fellowship recipients and others affiliated with Sylff institutions will take this opportunity to show their generosity and support for current fellows.

Some comments received from relief recipients:

“Your letter comes as a bright light in the darkness. […] I am right now moved to tears. Thank you for caring so much about us, the Sylff Fellows, and for giving us hope!”

“This funding will help me in my daily life […] With this help, I can cover my daily expenses and to continue my studies in the best possible conditions during this difficult time.”

“The […] letter from Mr. Sasakawa, Association's Chairman, and Ms. Kadono, the President of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research has left me speechless and in deepest appreciation of your association's generous contribution to the continuation of my future research.”

“I wish to express my deepest gratitude for the consideration to offer me financial assistance during this rather difficult period. I really have no words to just say how grateful I am - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!”

“This money will be of great help to me and my family, this period has been very difficult because [of] the pandemic […] and we were trapped there for three more months.”

“[Y]ou have lightened my financial burden even in a pandemic which allows me to focus more on the most important aspect of school, learning.”

We wish to thank all those who already contributed to our fundraising initiative.

[How-to-Give] Our online donation now accepts credit cards - VISA, MasterCard, JCB, American Express and Diners. Please give today! (Donation campaign closed on November 13, 2020.)