COVID-19 in China. The Great Wall of Technology

Authors

Abstract

China is the first country to have faced an extensive contagion of Covid-19, and the response it has given, in terms of prevention and control measures, has been effective in eradicating the virus, even though not completely. Those measures were based on an extensive and widespread use of technologies. The strategies adopted were not the result of improvisation: the social, cultural and technological structures were already in place well before the epidemic took place. The present contribution draws upon the anecdotal experience of one of the two authors, who lives in China and has been there during the epidemic, in light of the news and the media theory. Though the Chinese approach was indeed successful, we suggest that it is doubtful that such a model can be exported to countries with different history, culture and socio-political background.

References

Arthur, W.B. (2009). The Nature of Technology What It Is and How It Evolves, New York: Free Press.

Athique, A. (2013). Digital Media and Society: An Introduction, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Augé, M. (2009). Nonluoghi. Introduzione a un'antropologia della surmodernità, Milano: Elèuthera.

Bell, D.A. (2008), China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society, Princeton :Princeton University Press.

Berti, R. (2020). Coronavirus, come la Cina lo ha fermato con la tecnologia e cosa può im-parare l’Italia. Agendadigitale.eu, 12 March 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://www.agendadigitale.eu/cultura-digitale/coronavirus-come-la-cina-lo-ha-fermato-con-la-tecnologia-e-cosa-puo-imparare-litalia/.

Biagio, S. (2020). Così big data e intelligenza artificiale stanno battendo il coronavirus in Cina. IlSole24Ore, 9 March 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/la-macchina-tech-xi-jinping-cosi-big-data-e-intelligenza-artificiale-stanno-battendo-coronavirus-cina-ADsL0XB?refresh_ce=1.

Briggs, A., Burke P. (2009). Storia sociale dei media. Da Gutenberg a Internet, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Carli, A. (2000). Coronavirus, l’Italia riapre senza la App Immuni. IlSole24Ore, 18 May 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2020, from https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/coronavirus-l-italia-riapre-senza-app-immuni-ADxU7IR?refresh_ce=1.

CNNIC, (2018). Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, China Internet Net-work Information center.

Colombo, F. (2003), Introduzione allo studio dei media, Carocci, Roma.

Cuscito, G. (2019). Il riconoscimento facciale in Cina ha due volti. Limes. Rivista italiana di geopolitica, 11 December.

Ericsson (2018). 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2019. An Ericsson ConsumerLab Insight Report. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://www.ericsson.com/4afb37/assets/local/reports-papers/consumerlab/reports/2019/10hctreport2019_screen_aw.pdf.

Gans, H.J. (2017), Sociology and Journalism: A Comparative Analysis. Contemporary So-ciology: A Journal of Reviews, 47, pp. 3-10.

Granovetter, M.S. (1973), The Strength of Weak Ties. Mark S. Granovetter. The American Journal of Sociology, 78, pp. 1360-1380.

Izard, C. E. (2010). The Many Meanings/Aspects of Emotions. Emotion Review, 2(4), pp. 363-370.

Lisi, A., Sarzana, F. (2020). Troppe ombre su Immuni: le domande a cui il ministro Pisano dovrebbe rispondere. Agendadigitale.eu, 7 May 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2020, from https://www.agendadigitale.eu/sanita/troppe-ombre-su-immuni-le-domande-a-cui-il-ministro-pisano-dovrebbe-rispondere/.

Luhmann, N. (1990). Sistemi sociali. Fondamenti di una teoria generale, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Martina, L. (2016). The Sociology of space: Materiality, Social Structures, and Action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Marx, G.T. (2001). Technology and Social Control: The Search for the Illusive Silver Bul-let. In N.J. Smelser & Baltes, P.B. (editors in chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford: Pergamon.

Mattelart, A. (1998). L’invenzione della comunicazione. Le vie delle idee. Milano: Il Sag-giatore.

Mitchell, J.C. (1969). The concept and use of social networks, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Platt, R. (1989), Reflexivity, Recursion and Social Life: Elements for a Postmodern Sociol-ogy. The sociological review, 4, pp. 636-667.

Porro, G. (2019). Cina, riconoscimento facciale obbligatorio se compri un telefono o una sim. Wired, 12 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://www.wired.it/internet/tlc/2019/12/02/cina-riconoscimento-facciale/?refresh_ce=.

Redazione Food, (2020). Coronavirus, è boom di spesa online con consegna a domicilio. Ritardi fino a 10 giorni sui tempi standard a causa delle molte richieste. IlSole24Ore, 11 March 2020, Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://bit.ly/2LCqN3z.

Rheingold, H. (2003). Smart mobs. Tecnologie senza fili, la rivoluzione sociale prossima ventura. Milano: Cortina Raffello.

Rogers, E. (1962). Diffusion of innovation. New York.

Scarpari. M. (2015). Ritorno a Confucio. La Cina di oggi fra tradizione e mercato, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Sennett, R. (1998). The Corrosion of Character. New York: Norton & Company.

Song, Z., Wang, C., Bergmann, L. (2020). China’s prefectural digital divide: Spatial analy-sis and multivariate determinants of ICT diffusion. International Journal of Information Management, 52, 102072.

Valori, G.E. (2019). Intelligenza artificiale, machine learning e intelligence. Le strategie di Cina, Russia e Stati Uniti. Formiche. Analisi, commenti, scenari, 4 July 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://formiche.net/2019/04/intelligenza-artificiale-intelligence/.

We are social (2020). Digital 2020. Global digital overview. Hootsuite. Retrieved May 5 2020, from https://templatelab.com/global-digital-report/.

Xu, H. (2019). Fragmented Society: The Diffusion of Ict and Chinas Modernization. Bern: Peterlang.

Downloads

Published

2020-05-30

How to Cite

Gatti, E., & Strizzolo, N. (2020). COVID-19 in China. The Great Wall of Technology. Culture E Studi Del Sociale, 5(1, Special), 301–314. Retrieved from https://www.cussoc.it/journal/article/view/123

Issue

Section

Esperienze e confronti [Experiences and comparisons]