These days the social ties between urban centers and peripheral areas have been growing steadily.
An impressively resilient community network has emerged within national educational institutions.
Primary school teachers have started working on-line and universities with an established tradition will have to adapt to on-line methods, while on-line universities have proved to be a smart and modern learning solution. This March 2020, a “small world” was revealed to be a big, connected world.
There has also been an increase in ethical behavior and altruism, which in turns contributes to the development of a “multi-hub network”, that is a network which gathers knowledge and contributions from multiple centers thanks to new discoveries and resources coming from peripheral areas, thus substituting what once were weak ties in favor of new and stronger connections.
Though the imperative to “stay at home” has so far been the only possible form of prevention against the attack of the COVID-19 virus, the social context is by no means frozen, but rather, it is bubbling with new energies. We have proven to be resilient- perhaps unexpectedly so- but what has also emerged is the possibility for a system as well as for individuals to preserve their integrity and their ultimate goal intact in the face of drastic changes in external circumstances.
This pandemic has without a doubt been a drastic, tragic and rather strange social misfortune which has changed our world for the worst, a war fought not by soldiers wearing army green uniforms, but by health care workers wearing blue and white coats to the tune of “Il mio canto libero” (Translator’s note: my free song) by Mogol, in the hope that “tutto passerà e sorriderai“ (T.n. everything will be fine and you will smile).
(Translation by UJCE)