The ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed society are the source of widespread discussion. But references to a ‘new normal’ are mostly confined to hybrid working and a possible four-day working week. Should future-scoping remain so narrow, a major opportunity for fundamental rethinking will be lost. This commentary seeks to take up and expand the argument of a 2021 article on the effects of COVID-19 by exploring the wider social implications and the opportunity presented by this existential crisis. Specifically, this critical analysis explores whether COVID-19 and its impacts have created a moment of liminality – a time of “transition during which the normal limits to thought are relaxed, opening the way to novelty and imagination, construction, and destruction” potentially leading to what Victor Turner refers to as communitas in which we can rethink the issues of our time and in which new social structures and understandings can form.

中文翻译：

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漫长的现在和限制：我们会创造社区吗？ COVID-19 的宏观社会视角

COVID-19 大流行如何改变社会引起了广泛讨论。但对“新常态”的提及主要局限于混合工作和可能的每周四天工作制。如果未来的范围仍然如此狭窄，那么就会失去进行根本性重新思考的重要机会。本评论旨在通过探讨这场生存危机带来的更广泛的社会影响和机遇，继承并扩展 2021 年一篇关于 COVID-19 影响的文章的论点。具体来说，这项批判性分析探讨了 COVID-19 及其影响是否创造了一个阈限时刻——一个“过渡时期，在此期间，思想的正常限制被放松，为新颖性和想象力、建设和破坏开辟了道路”，可能导致维克多·特纳所说的共同体，我们可以在其中重新思考我们这个时代的问题，并在其中形成新的社会结构和理解。