Intrecci emotivi della cura. Il caso delle reti informali di medici nell’emergenza pandemica

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Flavia Atzori, Rosario Aprile
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/3
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 61-77 File size 344 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2026-003005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This paper explores how emotions, knowledge-making and social interaction became intertwined within informal networks of physicians during the pre-vaccination phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Against a backdrop of epistemic uncertainty, clinical urgency and perceived institutional neglect, these networks became spaces where physicians exchanged experiences, supported one another and collectively developed situated forms of knowledge. Drawing on a qualitative approach, the study identifies four key configurations: fear and disorientation as triggers for early exchanges; emotional effervescence in the emergence of the networks; empathy and professional responsibility as drivers of cooperation; and disappointment and resentment in the search for recognition. The findings show that emotions were not marginal to professional practice, but played a constitutive role in shaping interaction, cooperation and knowledge production.

Keywords: emotions; social interaction; physicians; pandemic; informal networks; knowledge production.

  1. Alberoni F. (1977). Movimento e istituzione. Bologna: Il Mulino.
  2. Alizadeh H., Sharifi A., Damanbagh S., Nazarnia H., et al. (2023). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social sphere and lessons for crisis management: a literature review. Natural Hazards, 117(3): 2139-2164.
  3. Baehr P. (2005). Social extremity, communities of fate, and the sociology of SARS. European Journal of Sociology, 46(2): 179-211. DOI: 10.1017/S000397560500007
  4. Battistelli F., Galantino M.G. (2020). Sociologia e politica del coronavirus: Tra opinioni e paure. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  5. Bianco A. (2016). La concezione di mutamento sociale in Georg Simmel. B@belonline, 1/2: 234-245. DOI: 10.13134/2531-8624/1-2-2016/1
  6. Bifulco L. (2019). Conflitto e solidarietà sociale. Il ruolo delle emozioni e della morale nell’impianto teorico di Randall Collins. Culture e Studi del Sociale, 4(2): 161-176.
  7. Blumer H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism. Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  8. Braun V., Clarke V. (2022). Thematic analysis: a practical guide. London: Sage.
  9. Charmaz K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. Los Angeles: Sage.
  10. Collins R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton Studies in Cultural Socio-logy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  11. Fox R.C. (1957). Training for Uncertainty. In: Kendall P.L., Merton R.K., Reader G.G., eds., The Student-Physician: Introductory Studies in the Sociology of Medical Education. Cambridge, MA: Har-vard University Press.
  12. Gengler A.M. (2020). Emotions and Medical Decision-Making. Social Psychology Quarterly, 83(2): 174-194. DOI: 10.1177/019027251987693
  13. Ghosh R., Biswas P., Chatterjee S., Sengupta S., et al. (2021). Love and emotions at the time of COVID-19. Minerva Psychiatry, 62(3): 156-163. DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6612.21.02143-
  14. Gieryn T.F. (1983). Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists. American Sociological Review, 48(6): 781-795. DOI: 10.2307/209532
  15. Goffman E. (1967). Interaction Ritual. Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Pantheon Books.
  16. Goffman E. (1969). Strategic Interaction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylva-nia Press.
  17. Hochschild A.R. (1975). The Sociology of Feeling and Emotion: Selected Possibilities. Sociological Inquiry, 45(2-3): 280-307.
  18. Hochschild A.R. (1979). Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85(3): 551-575. DOI: 10.1086/22704
  19. Hochschild A.R. (1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Fee-ling. University of California Press.
  20. Hoggan-Kloubert T., Hoggan C. (2023). Post-Truth as an Epistemic Crisis: The Need for Rationality, Autonomy, and Pluralism. Adult Education Quarterly, 73(1): 3-20. DOI: 10.1177/0741713622108042
  21. Iagulli P. (2019). Interactionism and the Sociology of Emotions. Italian Sociological Review, 9(2): 195-208. DOI: 10.13136/ISR.V9I2.27
  22. Illouz E. (2025). Modernità esplosiva. Il disagio della civiltà delle emozioni. Einaudi: Torino.
  23. Jasper J.M. (1997). Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
  24. Kuckartz U., Rädiker S. (2019). Analyzing qualitative data with MAXQDA. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
  25. Lamont M., Molnár V. (2002). The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 28(1): 167-95.
  26. Lusardi R., Bronzini M., Piras E.M. (2023). Low-intensity epistemic war. Medical communities and the development of legitimate knowledge in times of radical uncertainty. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, (4): 643-74. DOI: 10.1423/11240
  27. Mazzeo R. (2021). Pandemia: tra la paura e Mister Hyde. Sicurezza e scienze sociali, 9(1): 39-49. DOI: 10.3280/SISS2021-00100
  28. Mora E. (1993). Il contributo di Georg Simmel ad un approccio comunicativo della teoria sociologica. Studi di Sociologia, 31(1): 5-28.
  29. Pugh A.J. (2013). What good are interviews for thinking about culture? Demystifying interpretive analysis. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 1(1): 42-68.
  30. Rivera L.A. (2015). Go with Your Gut: Emotion and Evaluation in Job Interviews. American Journal of Sociology, 120(5): 1339-1389. DOI: 10.1086/68121
  31. Simmel G. (1908). Soziologie. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.
  32. Sinsky C.A., Trockel M., Carlasare L.E., West C.P., et al. (2023). Politicization of Medical Care, Burnout, and Professionally Conflicting Emotions Among Physicians During COVID-19. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 98(11): 1613-1628.
  33. Špecián P. (2022). Epistemology and the Pandemic: Lessons from an Epistemic Crisis. Social Epistemology, 36(2): 167-179. DOI: 10.1080/02691728.2021.200993
  34. Thoits P.A. (1989). The Sociology of Emotions. Annual Review of Sociology, 15(1): 317-342.
  35. Tomelleri S. (2010). Una sociologia delle emozioni: il risentimento. Studi di Sociologia, 48(1): 3-15.
  36. Villa F. (1993). Sociologia e metasociologia in Georg Simmel. Studi di Sociologia, 31(1): 29-63.
  37. Weber M. (1922). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tübingen: Mohr.
  38. Wenger É. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Flavia Atzori, Rosario Aprile, Intrecci emotivi della cura. Il caso delle reti informali di medici nell’emergenza pandemica in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 3/2026, pp 61-77, DOI: 10.3280/SES2026-003005