Covid-19: magnifying pre-existing urban problems

Abstract

The effects of the transformations that have been experienced during the Covid-19 global crisis have the potential to endure beyond the frame of the pandemic. This could become a time when a new world order, which emerges out of this crisis, oscillates between socialism and authoritarianism. Meanwhile, cities are the first ground where transformations caused by a crisis find places to manifest. Pandemics, economic recessions, terrorist attacks, and other crises, all leave their traces on the socio-spatial organization of cities and related urban experiences. In this context, this study conducts a critical review of existing conflicting possibilities, where each has the potential to produce changes in urban space and to affect the ways urban space is experienced. The article critically reviews these concepts via the two major interlinked types of non-pharmaceutical mitigation strategies against the pandemic within urban contexts: first, those that restrict movement and interaction, and second, those that concern digital space. The review shows the potential for two alternatives, oscillating between new forms of authoritarianism and social solidarity around the world.

Popular article based on the paper, with commentaries, is published in Versus Research Debate.