IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v30y2025i4p1085-1097.html

Contingencies of Solidarity: Comparing Twitter\X Discourses in Italy and Germany during the COVID-19 Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Rocco Paolillo

    (University of Bremen, Germany; Constructor University, Germany)

  • Till Hilmar

    (University of Vienna, Austria)

  • Patrick Sachweh

    (University of Bremen, Germany)

Abstract

The article examines different articulations of solidarity discourse in Germany and in Italy during the COVID-19 crisis, demonstrating how its meanings varied between the two countries in conjunction with national contingencies influencing how the crisis was experienced. Text analysis with Twitter\X data is used to compare how the term was framed during the crisis. The two countries were selected based on their differing socio-economic, cultural, and institutional conditions before the pandemic and varying consequences, with Germany’s stronger welfare regime performing relatively better. Results show how solidarity is framed differently in both countries, with a commitment to public health and civic engagement in Germany and to social solidarity and local practices of assistance in Italy. The contribution underlines the value of reconstructing the varying meanings of solidarity under different societal conditions to understand its role as a catalyst for social resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Rocco Paolillo & Till Hilmar & Patrick Sachweh, 2025. "Contingencies of Solidarity: Comparing Twitter\X Discourses in Italy and Germany during the COVID-19 Crisis," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 30(4), pages 1085-1097, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:30:y:2025:i:4:p:1085-1097
    DOI: 10.1177/13607804241306383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804241306383
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13607804241306383?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wladimir Morante-García & Rosa María Zapata-Boluda & Jessica García-González & Pedro Campuzano-Cuadrado & Cristobal Calvillo & Raquel Alarcón-Rodríguez, 2022. "Influence of Social Determinants of Health on COVID-19 Infection in Socially Vulnerable Groups," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-10, January.
    2. Laura K. Nelson, 2020. "Computational Grounded Theory: A Methodological Framework," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 49(1), pages 3-42, February.
    3. Arjen Boin & Paul ‘t Hart, 2022. "From crisis to reform? Exploring three post-COVID pathways [Institutional crises and reforms in policy sectors: The case of asylum policy in Europe]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 13-24.
    4. Bart Bonikowski & Laura K. Nelson, 2022. "From Ends to Means: The Promise of Computational Text Analysis for Theoretically Driven Sociological Research," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 51(4), pages 1469-1483, November.
    5. Grzegorz Bryda & António Pedro Costa, 2023. "Qualitative Research in Digital Era: Innovations, Methodologies and Collaborations," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, October.
    6. F. Marijn Stok & Michèlle Bal & Mara A. Yerkes & John B. F. de Wit, 2021. "Social Inequality and Solidarity in Times of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:jvpbw_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Abramson, Corey & Li, Zhuofan, 2024. "Ethnography and Machine Learning: Synergies and New Directions," OSF Preprints jvpbw, Center for Open Science.
    3. Brian Heseung Kim & Julie J. Park & Pearl Lo & Dominique Baker & Nancy Wong & Stephanie Breen & Huong Truong & Jia Zheng & Kelly Rosinger & OiYan A. Poon, 2025. "Letters of Recommendation by High School Counselors in Selective College Admissions: Differences by Race and Socioeconomic Status in Letter Length and Topics Discussed," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 66(5), pages 1-35, August.
    4. Brian S. Bantugan, 2026. "Qualitative Mindset behind Grounded Theory: Implications to Qualitative Research Training," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 10(3), pages 5884-5895, March.
    5. Cammarota, Antonella & D’Arco, Mario & Marino, Vittoria & Resciniti, Riccardo, 2026. "The brand activism path: Mapping the activism intensity and consumer responses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    6. Daniel Béland & Alex Jingwei He & M Ramesh, 2022. "COVID-19, crisis responses, and public policies: from the persistence of inequalities to the importance of policy design [The impact of COVID-19 on gender equality]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(2), pages 187-198.
    7. Abramson, Corey & Li, Zhuofan & Prendergast, Tara & Dohan, Daniel, 2025. "Qualitative Research in an Era of AI: A Pragmatic Approach to Data Analysis, Workflow, and Computation," SocArXiv 7bsgy_v1, Center for Open Science.
    8. Heran Guan & Rossilah Jamil, 2026. "How recruitment signals become memes: competitive intelligence dynamics in ten Chinese AI firms," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Alex Luscombe & Kevin Dick & Kevin Walby, 2022. "Algorithmic thinking in the public interest: navigating technical, legal, and ethical hurdles to web scraping in the social sciences," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1023-1044, June.
    10. WÜSTNER Kerstin, 2022. "Solidarity and political narratives in crises – responses to deviant communication during the COVID-19 pandemic," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 02, June.
    11. Nicola Righetti & Niccolò Bertuzzi, 2025. "Rethinking Veganism in the Digital Age. Innovating Methodology and Typology to Explore a Decade of Facebook Discourses," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 30(1), pages 96-115, March.
    12. Nicola Giannelli & Andrea Lippi, 2022. "The relevance of non-institutional practice in health care steering at local level in Italy.What has been learnt in pandemic times?," Working Papers 2203, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2022.
    13. Stijn Daenekindt & Julian Schaap, 2022. "Using word embedding models to capture changing media discourses: a study on the role of legitimacy, gender and genre in 24,000 music reviews, 1999–2021," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 1615-1636, November.
    14. Ashwin,Julian & Chhabra,Aditya & Rao,Vijayendra, 2023. "Using Large Language Models for Qualitative Analysis can Introduce Serious Bias," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10597, The World Bank.
    15. Özgür Özvatan & Bastian Neuhauser & Gökçe Yurdakul, 2023. "The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Mangiò, Federico & Mismetti, Marco & Lissana, Elena & Andreini, Daniela, 2023. "That's the Press, Baby! How journalists co-create family business brands meanings: A mixed method analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. Nathaniel Poor, 2020. "Open-Source’s Inspirations for Computational Social Science: Lessons from a Failed Analysis," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 231-238.
    18. Aoxue Li & Zhengping Ding & Chunhua Sun & Yezheng Liu, 2024. "Recommending AI based on Quantified Self: Investigating the mechanism of consumer acceptance of AI recommendations," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Giebel, Sonia & Nürnberg, Charlotte & Nuhoglu Soysal, Yasemin, 2026. ""Diversity" in an age of global ambition: the case of German Universities of Excellence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest ar, pages 1-25.
    20. Giliberto Capano & Michael Howlett & Darryl S L Jarvis & M Ramesh, 2022. "Long-term policy impacts of the coronavirus: normalization, adaptation, and acceleration in the post-COVID state [Racial, economic, and health inequality and COVID-19 infection in the United States]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 1-12.
    21. Scholdra, Thomas P. & Wichmann, Julian R.K. & Reinartz, Werner J., 2023. "Reimagining personalization in the physical store," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(4), pages 563-579.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:30:y:2025:i:4:p:1085-1097. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.