Social Life during COVID-19 in France, Germany, Italy and the UK

This book presents a thorough examination of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted social life across four major European countries—France, Germany, Italy, and the UK. Drawing on high-quality longitudinal data, it investigates how personal, work, and political lives evolved during and after the pandemic, with particular focus on inequalities based on gender, age, and socio-economic status. The book offers unique insights into both short-term disruptions and longer-term resilience in society, highlighting changes in remote work, family life, and mental health. The book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, political science, demography, and social policy seeking to understand the pandemic’s complex social consequences. Elias Naumann is Senior Researcher at GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and external fellow at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research. His research interests are related to political sociology, comparative political economy, welfare state preferences, and survey methodology. Ferruccio Biolcati Rinaldi is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan, where he is a member of the spsTREND research lab. His main research interests deal with religiosity and value change. Alita Nandi  is  Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, the University of Essex and the Associate Director (Outreach) for Understanding Society. She is a quantitative social scientist conducting research in the areas of ethnicity and gender, primarily examining differences in economic and subjective wellbeing and mental health.. Ettore Recchi   is Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Paris, Centre for Research on Social Inequalities (CRIS). He is also part-time professor of the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and Fellow of the Institut Convergences Migrations (Paris).