Remaking time: Cultural semiotic transformations of temporality during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown

This paper investigates one aspect of meaning making that occurs in the wake of systemic change. It addresses the question of how time is re-configured by socio-material changes resultant from the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a semiotic perspective, we aim to describe a process of disruption and dis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Integrative physiological and behavioral science 2023-03, Vol.57 (1), p.235-255
Main Authors: Ruse, Jesse N, Rhodes, Paul, Tateo, Luca, Luca Picione, Raffaele De
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Communicable Disease Control
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Epidemics
Humans
Mediation
Pandemics
Psychology
Regular
Regular Article
Sociology
Time
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Summary:This paper investigates one aspect of meaning making that occurs in the wake of systemic change. It addresses the question of how time is re-configured by socio-material changes resultant from the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a semiotic perspective, we aim to describe a process of disruption and distress, which leads to a recognition of the oddness of ‘covid-time.’ This is characterised by distressing ‘suspended waiting’, a despairing frozen temporality. After this, this odd covid-time is semiotically assimilated into the old and familiar. Distressing ‘suspended time’ is transformed into ‘productive time’, ‘normal time’, and ‘transformational time’ as an attempt to regulate affect. By highlighting this semiotic shift, the theory of the Cultural Psychology of Semiotic Dynamics (Valsiner, 2014 ) is used to highlight how meaning is constructed using cultural resources.
ISSN:1932-4502
1936-3567
DOI:10.1007/s12124-022-09711-6