Seriously Social

Planes, trains and a whole lot of pain: Tourism and COVID-19

Cruise ships stuck at sea, airlines going into voluntary administration, borders closed and travellers racing deadlines to get home. There’s no doubt the travel and tourism industry was an early victim of COVID-19. But what does recovery look like? On this episode of Seriously Social, tourism expert Professor Sara Dolnicar from UQ’s Business School explains what the tourism industry of the future might look like.

 

Useful Links

• A post-COVID-19 model of of tourism and hospitality workforce resilience A Martins, T Riordan, S Dolnicar
• How to waste less on vacation TEDxUQ Sara Dolnicar
• COVID19 and Airbnb–disrupting the disruptor. Sara Dolnicar, Samira Zare

The Money Fight: Public health vs the economy

It’s a discussion we’re hearing on repeat: do we save lives, or save the economy? For some, COVID-19 is the ultimate choice between two ‘must haves’.  But is it really? Professor Richard Holden explains why he joined economists from across the globe to explain to us the false dichotomy of public health versus the economy.  We’ll cover everything from game theory to social equalisers to the issue of whether economists are really the cold and calculating types they’re sometimes made out to be.

Useful Links

• Open letter from 265 Australian economists: don't sacrifice health for the economy The Conversation
• As bad as the Great Depression: top economist's warning on coronavirus impact Matthew Knot
• Provide incentives for using the tracing app Richard Holden & Joshua Gans
• Vital signs: A lesson from game theory the coronavirus contrarians ignore Richard Holden

Gender and the pandemic

With the #metoo movement, Harvey Weinstein’s conviction and subsequent sentencing – it finally seemed that gender equality issues were gaining traction, at least in the public’s mind. But what has the COVID-19 crisis taught us about gender, diversity and the very notion of citizenship? On this episode of Seriously Social journalist Ginger Gorman talks to legal scholar Professor Kim Rubenstein about gender and the pandemic, leadership and what it means to be an active citizen.

Useful Links

• Did our employers just requisition our homes? Fiona Jenkins
• Champions of Change Coalition
• BroadAgenda

Spanish flu to social distancing: how history can help us understand how to live through a pandemic

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In this launch episode of the Seriously Social podcast, historian Frank Bongiorno shares what history can teach us about living through the current COVID-19 pandemic. Frank is a Australian National University history professor and fellow of both the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and in this episode he takes us back in time to the Peloponnesian War, the 1918-19 Spanish Flu outbreak, the World Wars and Great Depression to see how other generations have dealt with global catastrophic events (and it’s not all bad news!).

Useful Links

• How Australia's response to the Spanish Flu of 1919 sounds warnings on dealing with coronavirus The Conversation

 

Seriously Social - trailer

What is the social impact of the COVID-19 crisis? Seriously Social is a new podcast addressing this question.

The country’s best social scientists will help you understand human society, social relationship and the systems that govern our daily lives. Brought to you by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.