Search results

Abstract. During a pandemic, it is essential that most people respect the measures in place so as to keep the health
crisis at bay. Still, a consensus must exist in society that
the measures imposed by government are truly needed,
just and legitimate, with several factors affecting whether
this is achieved. In the article, we present the results of
qualitative research (23 in-depth interviews) conducted
in Slovenia at the peak of the first lockdown, focusing
on how the study participants (women who were living alone during the first lockdown) perceived communication from the government and the public health
authorities that comprised the official crisis communication group for managing the pandemic in Slovenia. The
results present critical mistakes in communication that
shaped trust in the official communicators and failed to
motivate and encourage respondents to comply with the
recommended and prescribed protective measures.
Keywords: Covid-19, protective measures, risk communication, trust, fear appeal, solo-living women

This article explores how the Slovenian women's lifestyle magazine Naša žena ( Our Woman) helped the Yugoslavian socialist project construct and shape the ideal socialist woman, and argues that she became the crucial ally in implementing socialist ideas in the everyday lives of Slovenians. The article shows how texts on food preparation and consumption, as well as those touching on household management and family care, published in Naša žena from 1960 to 1991 played an important part in the 'civilising' process that shaped behaviour, directed cultural and social practices, influenced social relations and constructed women's identities during socialism. We show how food-related texts (articles, recipes, columns, advertisements and advertorials) were never far removed from the larger political and economic socialist realities. In fact, they bore witness to changes in living standards and told stories about gender regimes, socialist ideologies and fantasies. These texts belong to a corpus of social transcripts that guide collective understandings of what it means to select, prepare, cook and eat food; what constitutes good cooking and eating; and who is responsible for preparing meals. Despite official socialist feminist rhetoric about freeing women from backward patriarchal arrangements, this article shows that texts offering food-related advice in socialist Yugoslavia contained explicit instructions for the 'correct' performance of the social roles of women, legitimising women's roles as worker, mother, wife and housekeeper. Above all, a woman was to be an 'engineer' of the private domain whose goals were to feed her family and keep the nation healthy and hence productive, and to modernise her kitchen in support of the technological and economic development of Yugoslavia.