Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences organized an academic event series in the 2021-2022 Spring Semester, which continued with a faculty seminar featuring Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan from Üsküdar Üniversitesi's Sociology department as a speaker.
Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan: ‘Social behavior patterns change during epidemics’
At the event held in Üsküdar Üniversitesi's South Campus E Block Socrates Hall and also broadcast online via Zoom, Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan from Üsküdar Üniversitesi's Sociology department presented the results of his scientific research in his presentation titled ‘Culture, Politics, and Microorganisms: Interaction of Superstructure Institutions with Epidemic Diseases in Different Societies.’
Social behavior patterns change during epidemics
Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan said, ‘Moving from this topic, although microorganisms cause epidemics, how we perceive and manage them is mostly determined by the cultural world and politics we live in. While biologically similar pathological symptoms are observed in the bodies of all people during an epidemic, social behavior patterns regarding these symptoms change.’
The fight against epidemics also has a political and cultural dimension
Emphasizing that in regions affected by epidemics, both the measures taken by political authorities other than drug and vaccine use, and the rapidly increasing economic collapse and death rates affect the entire society, Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan said, ‘These effects develop varying levels and degrees of threat and risk perception towards the future across society according to cultural and social differentiation, reveal prejudiced and discriminatory behavior patterns, and cause behaviors such as panic. Consequently, radical changes occur in the political, economic, social, and even cultural structure. These effects and changes can be decisive at the individual and political decision-maker levels in perceiving and defining the epidemic and in developing methods to combat it.’
It is not possible to understand and stop the nature of an epidemic with a purely biomedical approach
In the final part of his speech, Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan pointed out that it is not possible to understand the nature of an epidemic and stop it with a purely biomedical approach without understanding a society’s culture, the traumas etched into its collective memory, and its political structure.
Prof. Dr. Erdoğan stated that using theoretical tools from disciplines such as psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, and political science, in addition to health sciences, has also gained importance in preventing epidemic diseases, adding, ‘In this context, if we compare mask usage in collectivist societies in Asia, especially China, with individualistic societies in Europe, the process of mask usage in Eastern societies for individual protection from infection