Purpose

Signs saturate and surround society. This article illuminates the significant roles played by documentation within the context of the coronavirus pandemic. It centres, what it terms as, “COVID-19 signage” as essential extensions of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) into society. It posits that this signage helps materialize, mediate and articulate the pandemic from an unseen phenomenon into tangible objects with which people see and interact.

Design/methodology/approach

This article presents a documentary typology of COVID-19 signage to provide a conceptual framework in which to situate, approach and analyse this diverse documentation and its implications for social life and traffic. Further, this article offers a case study of Malta's COVID-19 signage that helped materialize, mediate and articulate the pandemic across the European island nation during its national lockdown in the first half of 2020. This case study helps contextualize these signs and serves as a dual contemporary and historical overview of their creation, implementation and use.

Findings

The coronavirus pandemic cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is, in many respects, an abstraction. Documents enable the virus to be seen and the pandemic to be an experienced reality. Specifically, COVID-19 signage materializes the disease and pandemic into tangible items that individuals interact with and see on a daily basis as they navigate society. From personal to environmental to community signs, these documents have come to mediate social life and articulate COVID-19 during this extraordinary health crisis. A material basis of a shared “pandemic social culture” is consequently established by and through this signage and its ubiquity.

Research limitations/implications

This article can serve as a point of departure for analyses of other kinds of COVID-19 signage in various contexts. It can serve as an anchor or example for other investigations into what other signs were used, including why, when and how they were produced, designed, formatted, implemented, enforced, altered and/or removed. For instance, it could be used for comparative studies between different NPIs and their associated signage, or of the signage appearing between different cities or countries or even the differences in signage at various political and socio-temporal points of the pandemic.

Social implications

It is dually hoped that this article's documentary typology, and historical snapshot, of COVID-19 signage could help inform how current and future NPIs into society are or can be used to mitigate the coronavirus or other potential health crises as well as serve as both a contemporary and historical snapshot of some of the immediate and early responses to the pandemic.

Originality/value

This documentary typology can be applied to approaches and analyses of other kinds of COVID-19 signage and related documentation. By serving as a conceptual framework in which situate, approach and analyse these documents, it is hoped that this article can help create a sense of clarity in reflections on sign-saturated environments as well as be practically employed for examining and understanding the effective implementation of NPIs in this pandemic and other health crises.

中文翻译：

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冠状病毒大流行的非药物干预 (NPI) 迹象：COVID-19 标志的文献类型学和案例研究

目的

符号饱和并围绕着社会。本文阐明了文档在冠状病毒大流行的背景下所发挥的重要作用。它以“COVID-19 标牌”为中心，将其作为非药物干预 (NPI) 对社会的重要延伸。它假定该标牌有助于将大流行从一种看不见的现象具体化、调解和表达为人们可以看到并与之互动的有形物体。

设计/方法/方法

本文介绍了 COVID-19 标牌的文献类型学，以提供一个概念框架，用于定位、处理和分析这种多样化的文献及其对社会生活和交通的影响。此外，本文提供了马耳他 COVID-19 标牌的案例研究，该标牌在 2020 年上半年全国封锁期间帮助实现、调解和阐明了整个欧洲岛国的大流行。该案例研究有助于将这些标志置于背景中，并作为它们的创建、实施和使用的双重当代和历史概述。

发现

冠状病毒大流行无法用肉眼看到。在许多方面，它是一种抽象。文件使人们能够看到病毒，并使大流行成为一种经历过的现实。具体而言，COVID-19 标牌将疾病和流行病具体化为个人在社会中穿行时每天与之互动和看到的有形物品。从个人到环境再到社区标志，这些文件已经开始在这场非同寻常的健康危机中调解社会生活并阐明 COVID-19。因此，通过该标志及其无处不在，建立了共享“流行病社会文化”的物质基础。

研究限制/影响

本文可以作为分析各种情况下其他类型 COVID-19 标牌的出发点。它可以作为其他调查的锚点或示例，以了解使用了哪些其他标志，包括为什么、何时以及如何制作、设计、格式化、实施、执行、更改和/或删除它们。例如，它可以用于不同非营利机构及其相关标牌之间的比较研究，或者不同城市或国家之间出现的标牌，甚至是大流行不同政治和社会时间点的标牌差异的比较研究。

社会影响

双重希望本文的 COVID-19 标牌的纪录片类型学和历史快照可以帮助了解当前和未来的非营利机构如何或可以用于缓解冠状病毒或其他潜在的健康危机，并同时作为对大流行的一些直接和早期反应的当代和历史快照。

原创性/价值

这种文献类型学可以应用于其他类型的 COVID-19 标牌和相关文件的方法和分析。通过作为定位、接近和分析这些文件的概念框架，希望本文能够帮助在对符号饱和环境的反思中创造一种清晰感，并实际用于检查和理解这些文件的有效实施。本次大流行和其他健康危机中的非营利机构。