From Trauma to Transformation: The COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in virtual communities
Abigail Barrett
I begin my article with a story - a true story. On May 21st, 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, I was scrolling through my Facebook news stories, when I came upon a post from a former schoolmate, now a university lecturer in Jamaica. They had shared a newspaper article featuring a current student at our former high school pleading with the public for help to continue his schooling online. The student was about to write exams for the Caribbean Secondary
Education Council, which is somewhat comparable to the SATs for university admission in the United States, but because our high school, like many schools in Jamaica, had resolved to carry out school lessons online, the student whose story appeared on Facebook had no means of continuing his education. For those with immediate access to the internet, a computer, and a mobile device, the transition was relatively smooth. However, for this aspiring soldier, the most accessible technological device was a neighbour’s cell phone, two miles walk away from his home. He started to commute daily on foot to access materials posted on WhatsApp by his teachers and to complete his assignments. This routine lasted until my former schoolmate succeeded – through his Facebook post and his dedication to raise awareness and funds, the young man was able to get a laptop and internet access for the keen student to be able to complete his assignments online and pass his exams for the Caribbean Secondary Education Council.
I wonder if people like myself who have the privilege to own both a computer and a smart phone can fully understand what this means for students in need. While we complain at times about Wi-
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 2 Fi speed being below 25 megabits per second, we should keep in mind that this student’s story is not atypical. In fact, there are millions of similar stories in the developing world. COVID-19 has been widening the gap between the haves and the have nots, but as discrepancies are increasing, the number of people who are willing to help has also been increasing, as is the case of the Jamaican student mentioned above.
In this article, I will refer to people who are willing to help those in need as “community
brokers”. Like a knowledge broker working within a research community tasked with closing the gap between research and policy, community brokers mediate between gatekeepers of traditional community and those who are becoming more active through virtual community. This article will show how the COVID-19 pandemic, a strange and traumatic event, has opened a space for community brokers who may help transform traditional communities.
Theorizing Community
At the end of the 20th century, cultural theorists and sociologists argued whether the word
“community had outlived its usefulness” (Kuecker et.al., 2011). Sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman (2004) and Gerard Delanty (2010), among others, saw the need to recover community, while Martin Mowbray (2005) was skeptical that the government promotion of community may lead to a depoliticization of social problems and may ‘mask the need of socio-economic reform’.
In his article titled “Community Capacity Building or State Opportunism?”, Mowbray wonders if community involvement is advocated by politicians to transfer their and their government’s responsibility onto the shoulders of community. In other words, he warns that if the community reacts to assist the young Jamaican student in the completion of his education, does it free the government of its responsibility?
Since the Second World War, community has played a significant role in several outbreaks of disease, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and more recently, the Ebola Virus Disease (EBV) in sub-Saharan Africa. It created safe havens for those affected by the outbreaks. While governments and politicians subsequently recognized the importance of community, they did not do enough to support these communities. This has been true even with
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 3 well-intentioned politicians such as the Former US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who are often lauded for their ability to invoke togetherness and
community in response to global crises. It is for this reason that scholars such as Mowbray (2005) caution against too much reliance on community. In his view, elected officials should be accountable for government support instead of passing on their social responsibilities to local groups in the name of community. Mowbray’s skepticism therefore must be kept in mind when we observe the response of the Jamaican government to the community brokers and their activities during the time of COVID-19.
In his 1955 literature review, sociologist George Hillary identified ninety-four different definitions of the term community with two thirds citing geographic area, communal ties and social interaction as essential characteristics of community life (Hillary 1955). In his work, Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World, Bauman (2001) reiterates that community insofar as it is geographical is also associational, emotional and reflects the need for humans to feel secure in their relations. According to sociologist Amitai Etzioni, a human being is defined by their ability to associate with members of a community: “Man is not, unless he is social”
(Etzioni 1968, 2). Others like Goodsell (2011) contend that only in the English-speaking world are people preoccupied with defining a mythical aspiration such as the community. The
appearance of COVID-19 and mandatory physical distancing has created a new meaning for the word “community”. It certainly has forced us to agree with Kasarda and Janowitz (1974) and Wilkinson (1991) that communities are ever changing and that the development and the
increased reliance on virtual communities has added a new dimension to the traditional notions of community.
While the traditional face-to-face community and the virtual community are different in form, all communities require social interaction and some level of trust (Greve and Yue 2017) to function efficiently. Traditional communities have survived threats of increasing individualism in the modern world and have maintained monopoly because they have trusted certain traditional values and certain types of behaviour, but COVID-19 has created a situation in which tradition holders have little choice but to trust younger players with their technical knowledge to create
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 4 and navigate virtual communities which are a means of coping with the difficult situation created by the pandemic.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, millions have lost their lives and millions continue to suffer. The trauma caused by COVID-19’s mortality and infection rate has also revived
memories of age-old injustices in our societies; unequal access to health care services, housing insecurity among marginalized groups and domestic violence are only some of the challenges that communities are trying to ameliorate. However, the absence of physical gatherings limits the ability of the traditional community to shelter those in need. Consequently, the use of
information communication technologies has been playing an essential role. Further, community brokers who understand the changing dynamics of our society, have encouraged the formation of virtual communities to cope with difficulties, but this is transforming traditional associations.
To show that a negative experience can lead to positive developments, I compare the case for this transformation in the Guadeloupean novel, Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé and the traditional community in Jamaica during the time of the pandemic. The novel helps us understand how a traumatic experience such as death can change perception and encourage people to act collectively to produce change. In the Guadeloupean example, a stranger’s death is the impetus for a traditional, oppressive community’s transformation. Similarly, in the Jamaican case there is a possibility of the community transformation which could be a result to the
devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the Jamaican experience, transformation comes about as young people hold onto an
opportunity to create meaningful reforms. They take on the roles of community brokers to bridge the gaps between the traditional community and the emergent virtual communities that are currently being honed. These community brokers can be likened to research knowledge brokers tasked with mediation and closing the gap between local communities and government. At their disposal are social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram that have provided a medium for them to unite new communities with the potential to have a similar reach and stronghold as traditional communities once had. The virtual communities as they are formed, may be seen as
“cloakroom communities” a term used by Bauman for contemporary communities that organize
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 5 and disintegrate swiftly. This contrasts with traditional communities which are built over time with institutions that keep them in place to have lasting impact. However, I argue throughout this article that the potential of virtual communities to have the same lasting impact should not be overlooked.
To make a lasting impact, we must encourage a dialogue between gatekeepers of traditional communities and rising virtual community brokers. Traditions are not easily changed; however, drastic disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic and traumatic experiences can lead to positive outcomes. In Writing History, Writing Trauma, Dominick LaCapra (2001) demonstrates how the American Revolution served as a traumatic myth of origin that gave rise to a new consensus in the United States. The Holocaust is a foundational trauma of a modern international Jewish community. The suicide bombings of the World Trade Center provided a new enemy for the country to come together in solidarity against the notion of terror. All these traumatic events have served as source for transformation in some shape or form. In the case portrayed in Crossing the Mangrove, the death of Francis Sancher was the traumatic event which led to a transformation in the villagers in Rivière au Sel. The outcome of the transformation is not clear in the novel, but people’s reaction to the stranger’s death acknowledges the injustice and the abuse of the traditional community, marking an important step on the road to improvement.
Traditional communities are often characterised by known familial ties. In Crossing the
Mangrove, all the villagers except Francis Sancher were known to each other for generations. All the main characters are named, as well as their distant relatives, to show how each individual is connected to the other. Vilma Ramsaran is one example; she is well placed in the community because of her parents and great-grandparents. When the villagers come to gather at Sancher’s wake, they do so out of respect for the Ramsarans; Vilma was carrying Sancher’s child. The narrator describes the Ramsarans as one of the most esteemed families in Rivière au Sel (Condé 1991). Other characters like Loulou Lemaulnes and Moise, also had significant ties to the village. Lemaulnes was an aristocrat and so were his parents and grandparents. Moise, who was the only one to befriend Sancher, was the son of Son Son who left Rivière au Sel and returned years later with a Chinese woman. With that, traditional communities are close knit and the individual’s connection to the community is often well known. So much so that when Sancher
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 6 arrives in Rivière au Sel, even though his ancestors are from there, the fact they are unknown to the other villagers makes him an outcast in their community as the fear of the unknown incites suspicion. Mama Sonson at the wake sums up the attachment to the community in this way, “I’ve lived here now in Rivière au Sel for sixty-three year. It’s here I was born. It’s here I shall end my days” (Condé 1991, 61). This is often the outlook of many elders in traditional society and in this way, Rivière au Sel bears resemblance to traditional communities in Jamaica.
Life in Rivière au Sel is not idealized as Gerard Delanty portrays community life in the pre- modern world. It is true that in this traditional community, as Delanty explains, the butcher is your neighbour, the midwife is your neighbour’s granddaughter and the carpenter lives only three houses away”. In Caribbean town “the community is an agent for socialization” but it is not true that “thick and trust came relatively easy” (Delanty 2001). In Rivière au Sel, the post-
colonial tensions between the different ethnic groups and the subjugation of women create little room for trust and camaraderie among the villagers. As the narrator says when Francis Sancher arrives to the Guadeloupean community, “As soon as we heard he was a Cuban, Papa declared there were too many foreigners and that he should be deported”. Lameaulnes, a character in the novel, went even further when he exclaimed “I’d like to kill him”, referring to Francis Sancher (Condé 1991).
While much of the literature on Crossing the Mangrove focuses on piecing together the identity of Francis Sancher and the multiplicity of identities in the Caribbean, in this article I draw attention to the villagers in Crossing the Mangrove and liken their transformation upon Sancher’s death to the transformation we may see instigated by the arrival of the mysterious virus and subsequent pandemic in traditional communities such as the Jamaican community. My objective is to demonstrate that a tragic event such as the death of a stranger or the occurrence of the highly contagious coronavirus disease can bring forth positive outcomes or perplex the status quo to make room for change.
Philip Ojo (2007) discusses the transformative power of death in Crossing the Mangrove as an event that forces disruptions both for the immediate family and a communal set-up. In their speeches at the wake, each villager recounts their experience with Francis Sancher, and they
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 7 undergo a certain kind of transformation. The critic describes the power of the traumatic
occurrence of death, even for someone as little revered as Francis, to redefine communities highlighting that there is a changed attitude towards Francis Sancher after his death; “their feelings are overpowered, and it brings them together” (Ojo 2007). Francis Sancher’s presence and his death force the characters to reconsider themselves, in relation to the deceased, as well as to each other, and as they use this experience to rethink their own lives, their transformation leads to a solidarity in Rivière au Sel. One hopes that the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic can lead to a similar transformation in Jamaica. So far, the formation of virtual communities has yielded some positive outcomes.
The small Caribbean island of Jamaica, which boasts an international reputation, is one of many developing countries that have not and perhaps will never “catch up” to the more developed, highly industrialized countries. In many ways, the country maintains very strong traditional communal ties observable through the ties to religion, gender roles, and affiliation with the British monarchy, that point to the pre-industrialization era in which the country was established.
On this island, the older generation often holds tightly to their rooted beliefs and ways of
knowing, just as the inhabitants of Rivière au Sel held to theirs. But nowadays, the old tradition keepers are being confronted by community brokers who contribute to community
transformations.
Community in Jamaica
The grandfather of sociology, Emile Durkheim, posits in The Division of Labour and Society (1893) that “communities exist in the bonds that link its members to society and its continuation is based on the interdependence of one with another”. Such an interdependence in traditional communities is fostered through trust and face-to-face communication. Durkheim observed that there was a collective consciousness that was formed through close-knit social interactions that bind individuals together in traditional communities. People were connected based on close personal ties and traditions, but these close ties are not always positive and based on solidarity.
Close ties can be based on hate and subjugation, as in Crossing the Mangrove. Stagnating people connected for generations and their close-knit interactions are observable in Jamaican culture
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 8 where Politics, Praise & Worship and Partying are most notable for bringing the people together in face-to-face contact.
The Three Ps in Jamaican traditional society: Politics, Praise & Worship and Partying
i. Politics
Politics, Praise & Worship and Partying are highly regarded activities in Jamaican traditional society. Locally and internationally, Jamaica is well known for its affinity to Christianity, robust political engagement, and its flourishing nightlife scene. As cultural elements in Jamaica,
politics, praise and worship and partying are often seen as a reflection of the country’s
postcolonial identity that rings true in the 21st century (Bradley 1960; Spence 2017). With the onset of the pandemic, these activities saw a near drastic shift in operations and to maintain a near functioning society, they needed to adapt to carry out the duties they once performed. I begin with an analysis of the shift noted in Jamaica’s political arena to demonstrate the transformation that has taken place.
According to a situation report published by the Pan American Health Organization, Jamaica started its preparedness for the novel coronavirus early in January 2020 immediately following the identification of the virus in China on January 7th, 2020. Under the Disaster Risk
Management Act, the government-imposed limits on social gatherings and as the Ministry of Health and Wellness set out guides for all sectors (Ministry of Health and Wellness, 2020). It was only a matter of time before someone asked, “Well, what about parliament?” “What about the government officials that need to work together in handling the country’s affairs?” “Where will they meet?” The Parliament of Jamaica, which has been meeting at Gordon House located at 81 Duke Street in Kingston since its inception in 1960, on April 7th, 2020, held its first virtual parliamentary meeting. The Special Select Committee that is tasked with evaluating Covid-19 developments convened over the conferencing platform Zoom. In a report published by the Jamaica Observer, Gordon House said that the new measure was the latest in its efforts to modernize operations and increase the use of Information Communications Technologies while observing the physical distancing guidelines in place.
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 9 Following this, more virtual parliamentary meetings have been held to discuss the social and economic affairs of the country. In a tweet, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, wrote “We are in unprecedented times, but the law provides that the business of Parliament continues on” (Holness, 2020). In the spirit that life and business must go on, virtual communities were ways to raise funds to procure personal protective equipment for front- line workers with a benefit concert hailed “Telethon Jamaica: Together We Stand”. The concert was held online and streamed across various and local and international stations and saw live performances from many local talents. During this concert, the Prime Minister took the opportunity to commend some community brokers of Citizen Response Jamaica who pooled their skills and expertise together to engineer low-cost emergency ventilators, produce over 5000 surgical masks and 3D-print face shields.
The Citizens Response Jamaica is made up of young professionals who organized over Twitter to form the response unit. The doctors from Citizens Response Jamaica have used their platform to provide information sessions and raise awareness about COVID-19 for the public. By organizing in this way – over Twitter and Instagram, they created a space to strengthen the community while in their individual homes. On April 15th, the Telethon organized by the Jamaican government had raised a total of $50,261,320 according to the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, who spoke to the Telethon’s success during a statement to the House of Representatives on April 15th. There have also been similar
occurrences on a global scale. On April 18, 2020, the World Health Organization and Global Citizen co-hosted the One World: Together at Home Concert. It was a live broadcast on Twitter and Instagram and was curated in collaboration with Lady Gaga, Idris Elba, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder among many others and hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert. Benefits raised from the concert were intended for a COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, regional and for local charities that provide food, shelter and healthcare to those most in need. The concert also featured health care workers and other essential service providers from across the world sharing their experiences and urging everyone to play their part.
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 10 At another virtual event with heads of state and global health leaders WHO Director-General Dr.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the launch of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or the ACT Accelerator imploring, “We will only halt COVID-19 through solidarity,” said Dr. Tedros. “Countries, health partners, manufacturers, and the private sector must act together and ensure that the fruits of science and research can benefit everybody”
(World Health Organization 2020b). While these are remarkable contributions from the public to build and maintain communities, we must be mindful of Mowbray’s skepticism that much more is needed from governments than their recognition and praise.
ii. Praise & Worship
In a 1999 article by Ted Olsen, Jamaica is termed as “The Island of Too Many Churches”, as it boasts the most churches per square mile in the world. In the article, former Director of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals is quoted saying, “Jamaica is a very religious country in many ways… and the church is one of its strongest voices”. Therefore, when the pandemic hit, and the nature of praise and worship also had to be changed, another cornerstone of Jamaican society was affected. An editorial posted in the Jamaica Gleaner on March 17th, 2020 suggests that the week following the first confirmed cases of coronavirus on the island saw a marked decrease in church attendance. The editorial describes that those who did attend were
discouraged from handshakes and hugging (extremely common greetings used in the church), sanitized at the door, and made to sit three to six feet apart during sermons where possible. It was also observed that many of the elderly who make up most churchgoers on the island were absent from church.
While some churchgoers grappled with health precautions versus their religious freedom, others made good to incorporate a virtual Sunday sermon, but things were not the same. The face-to- face connections that are typical in attending Sunday Services in person are a vital part of the traditional experience of Praise & Worship in Jamaica. A report published in the Gleaner titled,
“Churches Go Online with Pews Near Empty,” details that some congregants for churches in Kingston and Saint Andrew were able to access worship sessions online via social media platforms like Zoom which facilitates video and web conferencing (Cross 2020). Undoubtedly,
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 11 as older congregations struggle with internet access, the participation numbers dragged. This is perhaps true for most new virtual communities that have sprung up across the island. In
reiterating his commitment to life post-COVID-19, regarding improving broadband and internet access the Prime Minister of Jamaica stated, “We have to put in place the required infrastructure to ultimately facilitate the provision of internet access as a public good. This is the only way we will transition to a truly digital society” (Holness 2020). While having church services online have achieved some level of success for the church, we must not to be too hasty to replace all in person traditional activities with virtual ones. Human beings are social beings and thrive on the connections that they create one with another.
Although most Christians would agree that church is not just a building but their fellowship with one another is what “calls them into a community with God” (Villareal 2012). When Goodsell et al. (2011) posit that community is where community happens, the nature of place and space comes into play. A popular fellowship song in Jamaica goes, “Let us greet somebody in Jesus’
name” in which members are called to hug, shake hands and greet each other. Another worship song “We’re a part of God’s family” invites members to hold hands with each other in a circle.
These forms of worship demonstrate the physical closeness of being in the church and the value that these face-to-face contacts have with creating trust and building relationships. With churches moving online, the gap that this physical distance creates seems almost unbridgeable and as we look forward to the future, these are the good aspects of the traditional community which the reimagined post-pandemic community will want to reinstate.
iii. Partying
The only other activity that Jamaicans enjoy thoroughly besides politics and praise, is a good party or in local terms, “a big dance”. All over the world, the little island is known for its nightlife and entertainment. For a dance, promoters would secure a venue or even a portion of a main road, have big speakers and live performances that would bring in crowds in the thousands.
When the Jamaican government announced the mechanisms under the Disaster Risk
Management Act (DRA) that limited the number of persons in public gathering spaces, a sadness was felt all over the country. Throwback tweets of wanting to go outside or pictures from past
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 12 events trended locally for days. It was not until a popular entertainment group devised a new way to engage their fans with the hashtag #BIGPARONLINE. The organizers of ‘Big Par,’ a party that was scheduled for March 20th but was cancelled due to the restrictions placed on outdoor gatherings, was forced to go back to the drawing board. What it came up with eventually brought more than 30,000 active listeners from across 30 countries together for one “big par”. Patrons from all over the world were able to tune in to Radiolize’s virtual platform based in Turkey. Big Par, or as it trended worldwide on Twitter #BigOnlinePar, exemplified how many community brokers in Jamaica understood that the need to social distance was far greater than their desire to party in the traditional way and the compromise to having the ‘Big Par’ event virtually paid off.
Since then, there have been multiple stagings of the event and the Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Mayors and Cultural Ministers alike have praised the organizers for keeping the
‘morale high during such distressing times’. The virtual community formed here is another example of how they can fill the spaces left behind by traditional communities that are often responsible for social engagements like these in times of crisis.
The community has always been regarded as a go-to for keeping optimism and spirit alive. The online event also allowed for donations in books and school supplies to aid in the transition to online learning for Jamaican students; a responsibility that churches in Jamaica have always assumed.Now, the hashtag #BigParOnline is recognised by many within the Jamaican Twitter virtual community and even internationally as listeners can tweet lyrics, post throwback videos and tag each other in tweets while listening to music simultaneously highlights a transformation of the traditional party culture in Jamaica. In addition to these party organizations and
fundraising events to lift the spirits and engage Jamaicans in a new way, there has been a surge in the number of young Jamaican entrepreneurs promoting, creating, and building their
businesses online. In a promotions thread by a Jamaican twitter user on July 27th, 2020 over 500 new YouTubers, chefs, candle makers, lash technicians, photographers, ecostore owners,
musicians, jewellers, painters, resumé editors etc. had started a business and were using their virtual community to start and promote their businesses and support others. There was also a notable push for digital engagement strategies for these groups and another Twitter user used his platform to offer a free LinkedIn workshop for those interested.
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 13 While the pandemic has further elevated the need for digitization and virtual networks globally, Twitter grew exponentially from 152 million users at the end of 2019 to a 166 million daily users at the beginning of July, with sales rising just over 3% in the first three months of 2020. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey credited the gains to “typical seasonal strength, ongoing product
improvements, and global conversation related to the COVID-19 pandemic” (The Washington Post 2020). Microsoft also reported a rapid increase in users on its own blog having seen an increase in the demand for programs that allow for home-office coordination. With twelve million new Microsoft Teams users in just one week, bringing their total to over 44 million active users worldwide as of March 19th (Zaveri 2020). Big companies like Microsoft and Twitter have profited from the pandemic and continue to encourage the use of their internet- based products to bridge the gaps that social distancing have now left in place. One wonders if these companies who have profited so much in the pandemic will be willing to give back to rebuild local communities. Microsoft has outlined a plan to help millions get in-demand job skills, mobilize Artificial Intelligence for Health and funding for virus research; it will be interesting to see how many other companies will contribute to those in need.
Despite this growth and such a transformation, virtual communities are not a panacea to the current global crisis. They help to curb some of the effects that COVID-19 has brought and as officials prepare for a second wave of the virus, the spaces that have been transformed are receiving increased attention to best prepare them for a second surge. The Jamaican Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Christopher Tufton, in a sectoral presentation titled Public Investment in Public Health: Every ONE Counts, said:
the last six months have seen a major transformation in the world. It is a transformation so dramatic that even now, countries are struggling to define what the new normal will look like, as they adjust to changes brought on by COVID-19. To define that new normal, we must answer the following questions: What is our personal responsibility, how are we to live in communities?
Essentially, Minister Tufton does not explain what steps the government will take to deal with the changes brought on by COVID-19, but asks what individuals need to do and what roles
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 14 communities are to assume. The next section, in a form of conclusion, discusses how traditional communities could dialogue with virtual communities.
Re-Imagining post-Covid-19 communities
The pandemic has exposed numerous gaps in our systems from healthcare, education to entertainment. The story of the young boy with no access to a mobile device and the hospitals that had little to no personal protective equipment in stock are only two examples that remind us of the traumatic lived experiences of many during the pandemic. If virtual communication is becoming more prevalent, there must be more pressure on big tech companies to give some of the profit they are making to those who are in desperate need, especially as traditional face-to- face communities they once relied on fall under pressure due to social distancing. We must be cautious in our approach to virtual communities and find ways to build trust, solidarity, protection, and other values that traditional communities offered. As Beaunoyer and Guitton (2020) reminds us, “not all are equals in terms of access to networks or connected devices, or when it comes to the skills required to navigate computerized spaces optimally. Digital
inequalities were already existing, yet the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating them dramatically.”
We must, therefore, make sure that older, unskilled, and unconnected people do not get further disadvantaged. As gatekeepers and community brokers face a new uncertainty, they must work together to build more equitable virtual communities. Lazakidou (2012) warns that as researchers are only now starting to dissect and comprehend virtual communities and collaborations, many issues need further study, including group dynamics and outcomes, social networking
implications, technical support features, group coherence and loyalty, and how organizations can better utilize the potential benefits of such communities (Lazakidou 2012). A post-COVID world that relies on much ICT is to be anticipated as governments, private and public sectors have already begun to migrate to a contactless approach.
As countries around the world work tirelessly to devise new ways to stay safe and keep the global economy afloat, there needs to be further research into the best practices for building and maintaining virtual communities towards a true reconstruction of community- one that allows the former beneficiaries of traditional communities’ space and access to the newly developed virtual
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 15 community. Jamaica is just one country affected by this global pandemic where we see
traditional communities transform as result of the infectious disease. The political, praise and worship as well as partying atmosphere formerly occurring in physical spaces in the small island, is rapidly changing and moving towards greater digitization and it is being organized by young people who are now in this position of leadership. By connecting to the World Health
Organization and many other international organizations, they have been raising awareness and collecting donations to support their suffering traditional communities, such as organizing their church services, setting up virtual medical appointments, bill payments etc. By doing this community brokers are in a position where they communicate with gatekeepers of traditional community and those who so desperately clung to the past. This could be a step towards transformation to a better future. Virtual communities have offered us a beacon of hope for change and improvement, but we must also be careful to maintain those good values of traditional communities. The pandemic, undoubtedly a traumatic experience like the death of Francis Sancher in Crossing the Mangrove, has cleared a new path forward for many of us.
When Francis Sancher died, a community that once resented him and kept him at a distance were able to reflect and come together for his funeral. Death as a traumatic event can change people’s perspectives and give them a new outlook or approach. Similarly, this pandemic has created a space to transform our communities and added new perspectives on how we can reimagine communities and life post-pandemic. However, as Delanty explained, good communication is the essential aspect in any community reimagination, and this will be key to maintain between traditional and virtual communities going forward with the understanding that there are advantages to traditional communities that cannot be easily replaced or replicated in virtual communities - as we have seen in the face-to-face connections in the church in Jamaica.
Likewise, there are new thoughts and ideas that cannot be realized within the boundaries of traditional communities but are able to manifest in virtual spaces.
MIC (Memoria, Identité, and Community), Volume 1 (2021). 16 References
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