Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home promotes the importance of indoor environment qualities. With the settings and functions of home offices, an experiment was carried out to determine ...the interaction effects between indoor plants and traffic noise levels (TNLs) on the performance and environmental evaluations of English reading comprehension tasks (ERCTs) and the performance of short-term breaks. A sample of 22 Chinese university students (12 males and 10 females) took part in the experiment. Two visual conditions (with and without plants) and five TNLs (i.e., 35, 45, 50, 55, and 60 dBA TNL) were included. Participants’ accuracy rates, eye movements, mental workload, and feelings about the environment were collected. The mental fatigue recovery (MFR), visual fatigue recovery (VFR), anxiety recovery (AR), and unfriendly recovery (UR) were measured for the analysis of a 5-min short-term break. The results demonstrate (1) plants have significant effects on ERCTs and short-term breaks, especially at 45 and 50 dBA TNL; (2) the effects of TNLs on ERCTs’ eye movements and work environment satisfaction differ by the presence of plants, e.g., the average pupil diameter (APD), lighting and layout satisfaction; (3) The effects of indoor plants on ERCT differ by the range of TNLs. In conclusion, indoor plants are beneficial to home workers engaged in ERCT when TNL does not exceed 50 dBA. The current data highlight the importance of audio-visual interaction in home offices and provide insights into the interaction mechanism between indoor plants and traffic noise.
In a Commentary published in 2017, I urged researchers to consider place both as a setting and an agent fostering collaborative practices in open-plan corporate offices (Andrews, 2017). This ...Commentary updates that article. The 2020 pandemic shuttered offices and sent individuals home, where they are gaining new habits and personal control in working remotely. To lure reluctant workers back to the office, companies are reimagining and redesigning their workplaces—a biophilic perspective helps—as homey studios or collaboration centers which an individual might choose to come to for the in-person gatherings unavailable at home. Hybrid strategies, negotiated with empathy between employees and employers, are emerging to manage work life and individual well-being across these principal workplaces.
ABSTRACT What happens to the diplomatic encounter when it is digitally mediated? This article investigates how multilateral diplomats, who understand themselves as bringing people and polities ...together, cope with and resist the move to online settings, replacing handshakes with touchless greetings in videoconferences. Our starting point is the Covid-19 pandemic, but the article theorizes the effects of digital technological mediation already under way years before. Translating Knorr Cetina's notion of “synthetic situation” into the discipline of international relations (IR), we address how the very composition of diplomatic interaction is undergoing transformation. Building on immersive and remote fieldwork, among ambassadors, attachés, interpreters, and journalists constituting the field of European Union diplomacy, our argument speaks to IR debates on international practice, face-to-face interactions, digital technologies, and the political sociology of diplomacy. We show how practicing diplomacy online and with restrictions on in-person meetings involves (re)constructions of its dramaturgy, props, symbols, and authenticity as well as “heroic” fantasies of duty and exceptionalism; we analyze how diplomacy is practiced in “screen worlds” through scopic media enabling “response presence” or virtual co-presence across geographic and professional/private sites; and we trace how resistance to syntheticism emerges as screen fatigue spreads. Overall, we find that the pandemic has accelerated the ongoing transformation of diplomacy from “naked” face-to-face interactions to digitally mediated “synthetic situations,” producing new interpretations of who is “essential” in diplomacy. We conclude by questioning the term “digital diplomacy,” suggesting that virtual practices are in fact not simply “online” but embodied offline, and sometimes actively resisted. In the screen world, diplomats’ bodies (and home offices) become key sites of IR. ¿Qué sucede con los encuentros diplomáticos cuando son mediados de manera digital? En este artículo se investiga cómo los diferentes diplomáticos, que se caracterizan por ser el nexo entre la gente y el sistema gubernamental, se enfrentan y se resisten a ser parte de un entorno online en el que se reemplazan los apretones de manos con videoconferencias. Nuestro punto de partida es la pandemia de COVID-19, pero el artículo teoriza los efectos de la mediación tecnológica digital que ya se viene viendo desde hace unos años. Trasladando la noción de “situación sintética,” propuesta por Knorr Cetina, a la disciplina de Relaciones Internaciones, abordamos cómo la composición de la interacción diplomática está experimentando una transformación. Sobre la base del trabajo de campo inmersivo y remoto, entre embajadores, agregados, intérpretes y periodistas que constituyen el campo de la diplomacia de la Unión Europea, nuestro argumento habla acerca de los debates de RRII de práctica internacional, las interacciones cara a cara, las tecnologías digitales y la sociología política de la diplomacia. Mostramos cómo la práctica de la diplomacia en línea y con restricciones en las reuniones en persona implica (re)construcciones de su dramaturgia, así como también fantasías “heroicas” de deber y excepcionalismo; analizamos cómo se lleva a cabo la diplomacia en el “mundo de la pantalla” a través de medios escópicos que dan lugar a la copresencia virtual en sitios geográficos y profesionales/privados; y hablamos de cómo el mundo se resiste al sintetismo a medida que se expande la fatiga causada por las pantallas. En general, descubrimos que la pandemia ha acelerado la transformación de la diplomacia, que ya se venía dando, pasando de ser interacciones cara a cara “desnudas” a “situaciones sintéticas” mediadas digitalmente, lo que da lugar a generar nuevas interpretaciones de quién es “esencial” en la diplomacia. Concluimos cuestionando el término “diplomacia digital” y sugerimos que las prácticas virtuales no son simplemente “en línea,” sino que se materializan fuera de línea y, a veces, el mundo se resiste a ellas activamente. En el mundo de la pantalla los organismos diplomáticos (y las oficinas) se convierten en lugares clave cuando hablamos de relaciones internacionales. Qu'advient-il d'une rencontre diplomatique lorsqu'elle a lieu numériquement? Cet article étudie la manière dont les diplomates multilatéraux, qui se voient comme réunissant peuple et polities, font face et résistent au passage aux environnements en ligne qui remplacent les poignées de main par des vidéoconférences. Notre point de départ est la pandémie de COVID-19, mais cet article théorise les effets du passage au numérique qui avait déjà commencé des années auparavant. Nous transposons la notion de « situation synthétique » de Knorr Cetina dans la discipline des relations internationales et nous abordons la manière dont la composition même des interactions diplomatiques est en train de se transformer. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur un travail de terrain mené à distance auprès d'ambassadeurs, d'attachés, d'interprètes et de journalistes constituant le champ de la diplomatie de l'Union Européenne, et notre argument contribue aux débats de RI portant sur la pratique internationale, les interactions en tête-à-tête, les technologies numériques et la sociologie politique de la diplomatie. Nous montrons la manière dont la pratique de la diplomatie en ligne, avec restrictions des réunions en personne, implique des (re)constructions de sa dramatrugie ainsi que des « heroic fantasys » du devoir et de l'exceptionnalisme. Nous analysons également la manière dont la diplomatie est pratiquée dans le « monde des écrans » par le biais de médias scopiques permettant la coprésence virtuelle sur différents sites géographiques et professionnels/privés. Enfin, nous retraçons la mesure dans laquelle une résistance au synthétisme s'opère tandis que la fatigue face aux écrans s'accentue. Globalement, nous constatons que la pandémie a accéléré la transformation de la diplomatie qui était déjà en cours et qui consiste en un passage des interactions en tête-à-tête « à visage nu » à des « situations synhtétiques » numériques produisant de nouvelles interprétations relatives aux personnes jugées « essentielles » ou non en diplomatie. Nous concluons par un questionnement sur le terme de « diplomatie numérique » en suggérant que les pratiques virtuelles sont non seulement « en ligne » mais également incarnées hors ligne et qu'elles font parfois l'objet d'une résistance active. Dans le monde des écrans, les institutions (et les bureaux à domicile) des diplomates deviennent des sites clés de relations internationales.
The paper examines the recent trends in international mobility, attractivity for international students, and the number of publications of two universities (Constantine the Philosopher University in ...Nitra, Slovakia, CPU and Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia, TSMU) to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected these processes and whether the adverse consequences of the pandemic were still retained after its end. In addition, we examined the influence of EU support for these processes. For this purpose, we analyzed the rates of international mobility (the number of outgoing and incoming students and employees, the number of international students, and the number of publications indexed in SCOPUS and the WoS database of CPU and TSMU before, during, and after the abolishment of administrative restrictions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The comparison of CPU and TSMU demonstrated the similarity between these universities in the development of international contacts and cooperation. The indexes of international mobility and the number of publications in the EU university CPU were higher than those in the non-EU TSMU. On the other hand, before COVID-19, the indexes of international mobility and the number of publications of TSMU were stable or tended to decline, but in CPU, they increased. COVID-19 had a negative impact on all indexes of international mobility, but the number of international students continued to increase in both universities, even during the pandemic. The use of home offices during the pandemic promoted an increase in the number of international publications among authors from CPU but not among those from TSMU. After the end of the pandemic, in both universities, the indexes of international mobility increased but sometimes did not return to pre-pandemic levels. In the post-COVID-19 period, in both CPU and TSMU, the number of international students continued to grow, and the number of publications declined. These observations highlight the trend of internalization experienced by both universities, the negative impact of COVID on their international mobility, and the importance of EU support for research.
Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers ...to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers' willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees' motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms' side, managers' reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces.
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