This auto-ethnographic description of the experiences in the development of the teaching and learning approach, at the postgraduate level, introduces the impact of the community of practice in the development of the learning processes in South Africa, with an international view. The principles of community of practice are outlined and the theoretical grounding is provided in terms of the notion of assemblage theory, the definitions of fundamental and derivative epistemic authority, as well as the assemblage boundary and the personal intents of the community of practice members. The theoretical grounding is then applied through several iterations of the community of practice between 2006 and present. The adaptive nature of the community of practice as an assemblage and the function as a sociology-of-knowledge system are outlined.
The current article is an attempt by the authors to present a bioethical case, or rather a search being undertaken to develop tools to interpret the novel ontological realm which has been created, and continues to be transformed in real time, by the COVID19 pandemic and its aftermath. The ontological realm is new, but the physical features of the world and the human in it are partially constants and identical to the previous realm parameters, the pre-COVID19 space-time. The question of existence in the new ontological realm is...how can the continuum of Homo sapiens and its existence be sustained in this new realm? The tools being developed use of previous information and knowledge of the members of Homo sapiens as a starting point and source of metaphors as tools to facilitate existence in the new realm. In this way, existing knowledge, which is held by individual members of Homo sapiens, and which exists and continues being created in the continuum of Homo sapiens, can be the foundation for the creation of new knowledge about the post-COVID19 realm and the individual and collective comprehension of humans of it and in it. Conceptual metaphors, the creation of compound metaphor and the prospective dialectic are suggested by authors as a possible epistemic implementation mechanisms in this context. The adaptation of humanity, its imagination and some professions are used to demonstrate the case for the ‘new science of human existence’ in the post-COVID19 world.
In this follow up paper, the ribovirocell concept from the first part of the study is linked to the ontological realm of human reality before, during and in the aftermath of COVID19. During this fluid space-time, human reality is multi-faceted and often very complicated. The authors present a division of the reality into fundamental reality and situational reality. Fundamental reality is based on the (physical) laws of nature such as the speed of light as a fundamental physical constant. This reality spans beyond the course of time as perceived by humans, which is beyond the duration of a single or multiple human lifespans and beyond the duration of the COIVD19 pandemic. Next to fundamental reality and overlapping with it, exists the situational reality, which humans experience directly themselves during their lifetime(s). Actions of humanity and of individual human beings contribute to the shaping of the situational reality. Examples of the situational reality can be e.g. experiencing atrocities that humanity has committed, humanity’s actions to prevent such atrocities in the future, as well as human progress in eliminating poverty/inequality in the world. At least, some aspects of human lives take place at the boundary between the fundamental and situational reality. The COVID19 pandemic is linked to the concepts and the boundary between the fundamental and situational reality that human’s experiences, such as speed of pandemic impact and shifting nature of reality. The ribovirocell state of one’s self is linked to the way to apply the speed as a threshold concept for resilience in the coronavirus space-time and the post-COVID19 world
The virocell concept of a viral lifecycle maintains that there are two main stages in a virus’s existence. The one is a passive state of a virion, which is not a living entity, and the second one is the virocell. In the state of virocell, a virus infects a host’s cell and hijacks its cellular machinery to achieve its own replication. Depending on the way that a cell reacts to a viral infection, it can have its activities or character as an individual living organism, suppressed completely, to some extent or not at all. In the article, the authors propose that there is analogy between the virocell theory as applied to the SARS-CoV-2 virus lifecycle and the sense of self for humans in the coronavirus pandemic world, and the post-COVID19 space-time. Methodology adopted is a combination of simile of Wittgenstein’s parallel cases, autoethnography, the virocell concept of the SARV-CoV-2 lifecycle and a multi-individual nature of one’s self based on the principles of the assemblage theory. The nature of human existence and the sense of self is defined as a relational notion which is tied to the societal educational standards, phases of developments of a human being and their fluid sense of self. The COVID19 pandemic space-time provides, in fact it demands that humanity undergoes an ongoing education of itself to maintain a productive and resilient movement forward for self and society, as an equivalent of the ribovirocell of a human cell infected with the coronavirus. The notion of speed will have to be unpacked and investigated further, which is done in part in a follow up article and is anchored as the defining characteristics of the post-COVID19 world.
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