Galkin K.A. Situational inequalities in the pandemic and features of adaptation of the elderly in post-pandemic time on the example of St. Petersburg and rural areas of Karelia. Journal of Social Policy Research. 2023. Vol. 21. No. 3. Pp. 519-538.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://jsps.hse.ru/article/view/18268 (дата обращения 08.11.2023)

Abstract

This article examinessituational inequalitiesthat arose during the pandemic and the peculiarities of older people’s adaptation to them in the post-pandemic period. The research focuses on everyday projections of inequalities of older people living separately in a federal city and rural areas. In order to look at inequalities, the work uses microsociological optics, which has made it possible to analyze how structural inequalities affect the lives of the elderly and what are the possibilities of adaptation after the pandemic that has triggered the processes of protection and self-preservation. The empirical basis of the study is 30 semistructured interviews conducted in 2022 in the federal city of St.Petersburg and villages of the Republic of Karelia.Asthe main inequalities, the article describes situational inequalities, such as digital inequalities, inequalities in access to and receipt of information, spatial inequalities, and inequalities in access to health care. It is shown that emotional reflection on the past, the presence of hobbies or the emergence of new ones, the revision of previousresources, types of communication and ways ofsolving problems, the shift of emphasis from caring for family and relativesto caring for oneself create positive opportunitiesfor adaptation, reduce the fears and worries of older people about the return of the COVID‑19 pandemic situation and the inequalities it creates.