An Exploratory Study Into Perceptions of the Impact COVID-19 Has Had on Sustainable Development Using Concept Mapping

Abstract COVID-19 affected the pursuit of sustainable development in multifaceted ways. This study presents eight clusters of perceived impact of the pandemic and duration of respective impact that constantly developed ‘new normal’ to cope with unprecedented disruptions. The exploratory research applied the bottom-up approach where Concept System® Global MAX™ software facilitated online brainstorming to generate diverse opinions. Gen Z individuals were prompted with the following excerpt, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world and led to unprecedented change. How do you believe this has impacted either positively or negatively, the global pursuit of sustainable development?’ Their opinions were analysed and reduced to generate unique statements for subsequent data collection, where participants sorting the items into thematic clusters before rating each of them. Subsequently, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis is performed using Concept System® to propose eight-cluster solutions. In the pursuit of sustainability, this study suggested that the pandemic have contribute positive Impacts on environment and Development of ICT infrastructure, while highlighting negative and long-term Impacts on Economy and Impacts on Wellbeing on overall. This community-based participatory research provides explicit recommendation in prioritising response for managing the unprecedented effects of the pandemic.