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This thematic issue examines disconnectivity in a world where connectivity is often assumed to be the norm. Drawing on multiple areas of research, such as political unfriending, digital disconnection, migration studies, and media censorship, it delves into the complexities of disconnectivity, moving beyond its framing as voluntary choice and individual practice. Collectively, studies in this issue highlight disconnection as a compelled act for self-protection and a collective strategy to tackle systemic problems. By examining enforced and coerced disconnection, they also reveal disconnection’s dual role as control and resistance. Through a multi-contextual and interdisciplinary lens, this issue challenges the normative assumptions implicit in our current understandings of disconnection, and, in doing so, advances the field.

The commodification of disconnection has attracted growing scholarly attention. Previous research highlighted the instrumentalisation of disconnection for productivity, self-governance, and healthy life. Researchers have also explored the politics of the “products” used for disconnecting, such as smartphone applications and offline commodities. Yet, current studies generally neglect to connect digital disconnection’s symbolic and material dimensions. In this article, we critically examine the discourses of what we call “disconnective media,” the products (hardware and software) that offer disconnection from digital devices. To explain how discourses and products find a basis in material and social structures, we deploy a discourse-theoretical analysis grounded in a Marxist materialist approach to neoliberalism and the materiality of discourse. We critically analyse six disconnective media and focus on these key dimensions: justifications (why to disconnect), time/space (when/where to disconnect), devices/platforms (which devices are appropriate to disconnect from), and class (who is addressed to disconnect). Findings show that digital technologies in the workplace have been naturalised, whereas phones and social media remain problematic. Leisure time is constructed with a set of obligations to use time meaningfully and improve the self, while work time is presented through a scientific work management mindset that promotes efficiency. Disconnective media advocate the ideal image of healthy, efficient workers. This study stresses the importance of investigating disconnection concerning commodified labour and neoliberalism’s material consequences.

Attachment style is widely recognized as influential in shaping responses to bereavement and prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Although theorized extensively, empirical clarity regarding how attachment styles specifically impact PGD symptoms and therapeutic implications remains limited. This study aimed to identify cognitive-behavioral mechanisms linking attachment styles to PGD symptoms. Data were collected from a community sample of 695 bereaved adults. Network analysis explored interactions between attachment styles (anxious and avoidant) and various cognitive-behavioral factors associated with PGD, including appraisals, memory characteristics, maladaptive coping strategies, and a sense of social disconnection. The findings reveal attachment styles as peripheral within the network, suggesting that their direct influence on PGD symptoms may be less central than previously theorized. However, anxious attachment correlated positively with injustice rumination and altered social self, while avoidant attachment was positively associated with perceived loss of future and relationships and preferences for solitude, and negatively associated with proximity-seeking behaviors and fear of losing connection to the deceased. Cognitive-behavioral factors, particularly memory characteristics and social disconnection, held central positions within the network, mediating relationships between attachment styles and PGD. Attachment styles indirectly influence PGD through cognitive-behavioral pathways rather than exerting strong direct effects. By bridging the gap between attachment theory and cognitive-behavioral approaches to grief, this study offers a more nuanced understanding of its relationship with PGD and points toward potential new avenues for future interventions aimed at addressing attachment-related challenges in bereaved individuals.

The focus of this perspective is on lockdown loneliness, which we define as loneliness resulting from social disconnection as a result of enforced social distancing and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also explore the role of digital technology in tackling lockdown loneliness amid the pandemic. In this regard, we highlight and discuss a number of the key relevant issues: a description of lockdown loneliness, the burden of lockdown loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, characteristics of people who are more likely to be affected by lockdown loneliness, factors that could increase the risk of loneliness, lockdown loneliness as an important public health issue, tackling loneliness during the pandemic, digital technology tools for social connection and networking during the pandemic, assessment of digital technology tools from the end users’ perspectives, and access to and use of digital technology for tackling lockdown loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people who are more prone to lockdown loneliness are provided with access to digital technology so that they can connect socially with their loved ones and others; this could reduce loneliness resulting from social distancing and lockdowns during the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, some key issues such as access to and knowledge of digital technology tools must be considered. In addition, the involvement of all key stakeholders (family and friends, social care providers, and clinicians and health allied professionals) should be ensured.

Unsuccessful retrieval of proper names (PNs) is commonly observed in patients suffering from neurological conditions such as stroke or epilepsy. While a large body of works has suggested that PN retrieval relies on a cortical network centered on the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), much less is known about the white matter connections underpinning this process. Sparse studies provided evidence for a possible role of the uncinate fasciculus, but the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) might also contribute, since it mainly projects into the ATL, interconnects it with the posterior lexical interface and is engaged in common name (CN) retrieval. To ascertain this hypothesis, we assessed 58 patients having undergone a neurosurgery for a left low‐grade glioma by means of a famous face naming (FFN) task. The behavioural data were processed following a multilevel lesion approach, including location‐based analyses, voxel‐based lesion‐symptom mapping (VLSM) and disconnection‐symptom mapping. Different statistical models were generated to control for sociodemographic data, familiarity, biographical knowledge and control cognitive performances (i.e., semantic and episodic memory and CN retrieval). Overall, VLSM analyses indicated that damage to the mid‐to‐anterior part of the ventro‐basal temporal cortex was especially associated with PN retrieval deficits. As expected, tract‐oriented analyses showed that the left ILF was the most strongly associated pathway. Our results provide evidence for the pivotal role of the ILF in the PN retrieval network. This novel finding paves the way for a better understanding of the pathophysiological bases underlying PN retrieval difficulties in the various neurological conditions marked by white matter abnormalities. In neuropsychological patients, we used a multilevel lesion approach to test the hypothesis by which temporal white matter connexions are important for retrieving proper names from the visual modality. In particular, we confirm that the left anterior ventro‐lateral temporal cortex contributes to this process and then provide causal evidence for the major role of the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus, unlike the uncinate fasciculus.

ABSTRACT Over a third of minor stroke patients experience post‐stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI), but no validated tools exist to identify at‐risk patients early. This study investigated whether disconnection features derived from infarcts and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) could serve as markers for short‐ and long‐term cognitive decline in first‐ever minor ischemic stroke patients. First‐ever minor ischemic stroke patients (NIHSS ≤ 7) were prospectively followed at 72‐h, 6 months, and 36 months post‐stroke with cognitive tests and brain MRI. Infarct and WMH volumes were semi‐automatically assessed on DWI and FLAIR sequences. Bayesian tract‐based disconnection models estimated remote pathological effects of infarcts and WMH. Associations between disconnection features and cognitive outcomes were analyzed using canonical correlation analyses, adjusted for age, education, and multiple comparisons. Among 105 patients (31% female, mean age 63 ± 12 years), infarct volume averaged 10.28 ± 17.10 cm3 and predominantly involved the middle cerebral artery territory (83%). WMH burden was higher in frontal periventricular white matter. Infarct‐based features did not significantly relate to PCSI. However, a WMH‐derived disconnection factor, involving commissural and frontal tracts, and the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, was significantly associated with PSCI at 6 months (OR = 9.96, p value = 0.02) and 36 months (OR = 12.27, p value = 0.006), particularly in executive/attention, language, and visuospatial domains. This factor, unrelated to WMH volume, outperformed demographic and clinical predictors of PSCI. WMH‐induced disconnection may be associated with short‐ and long‐term PSCI in minor stroke. Routine MR‐derived features could identify at‐risk patients for rehabilitation trials. No relationship was observed between infarct‐based features and post‐stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). A Bayesian model illustrating stroke participants, latent factors, and tract‐based disconnection induced by white matter hyperintensities was associated with 6‐ and 36‐month PSCI. The model can be easily implemented in clinical practice as it solely relies on conventional MR sequences.

A different type of defect, the coherency disclination, is added to disclination types. Disconnections that include disclination content are considered. A criterion is suggested to distinguish disconnections with dislocation content from those with disclination content. Electron microscopy reveals unit disconnections in a low albite grain boundary, defects important in grain boundary sliding. Disconnections of varying step heights are displayed and shown to define both deformed and recovered structures.

This article sheds new light on the long-run evolution of political cleavages in 21 Western democracies. We exploit a new database on the socioeconomic determinants of the vote, covering more than 300 elections held between 1948 and 2020. In the 1950s and 1960s, the vote for social democratic, socialist, and affiliated parties was associated with lower-educated and low-income voters. It has gradually become associated with higher-educated voters, giving rise in the 2010s to a disconnection between the effects of income and education on the vote: higher-educated voters now vote for the \"left,\" while high-income voters continue to vote for the \"right.\" This transition has been accelerated by the rise of green and anti-immigration movements, whose distinctive feature is to concentrate the votes of the higher-educated and lower-educated electorates. Combining our database with historical data on political parties' programs, we provide evidence that the reversal of the education cleavage is strongly linked to the emergence of a new \"sociocultural\" axis of political conflict.

There is a growing body of literature on the use and selection of social media platforms for political activism. However, less attention has been given to identifying citizens who are politically disconnected—those registered on social media platforms but not engaging in political activities. Additionally, whether patterns of non-use of social media for politics vary across different platforms remains understudied. Based on an online survey of 1,978 respondents conducted after the 2022 French presidential election campaign, this article aims to address these questions by examining the patterns and factors contributing to political disconnection from social media, particularly across six platforms: Facebook, private social networks, Instagram, Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. Our findings indicate that three main factors explain political disconnection: digital skills, interest in politics (except for platforms less frequently used for politics), and social media efficacy. These results provide significant and original contributions to the broader debate on how and why individuals disconnect socially and technologically on social media platforms. While many studies focus on the variables that account for political participation in the age of social media, ours examines the conditions that explain non-use in the context of political disconnection. We also contribute to the existing literature by analysing the phenomenon of non-use holistically, addressing platform type, demographics, digital literacy, and political traits (e.g., interest and competence).