How COVID reconfigured family relationships: Explaining the work of academic women through the lens of complexity theory

Abstract

During the data collection period, all South Africans, except essential workers, were by law required to shelter at home under "lockdown". [...]universities had to make a swift transition from face-to-face lectures to online teaching and learning. [...]of these cultural and gender norms, women are often required to be caregivers in the family. A primary feature of the Covid-19 pandemic is the complexity of the responses to the crisis, apparent in everything from the closure of all non-essential businesses, schools, and public universities to the need to socially distance and to get health care system the resources to combat the virus. [...]applying a complexity lens to the conditions that confront us promises to improve our understanding of the current Covid-19 pandemic. 5. Theoretical framework Complexity science is a set of interdisciplinary theories that has its origins in the biological and physical sciences, but which has now also moved into the social and management sciences (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001: 389).