2021
Remember Teaching?
EURA Conversations Post #17 – 25 January 2021
by Alistair Jones, De Montfort University – Department of Politics, People and Place, UK
As I sit back to reflect upon my teaching experiences over this academic year, I try to count the number of silhouettes I have taught, the number of breakout rooms in which tumbleweed has rolled, and the number of silhouettes who have remained in the virtual classroom long after it has concluded, ignoring requests to leave the room.… Read the rest
Distancing
EURA Conversations Post #18 – 8 February 2021
by Henrique Dorneles De Castro, UFRGS Geography post-graduate program, Observatório das metrópoles, Núcleo Porto Alegre, Brazil
It might be the pessimist geographer in me, or maybe it is because I live in Latin America, but I not only share Filipe Teles’ (Conversation 3) concerns about social distancing becoming the next pandemic, I indeed think this is a very possible path for post COVID-19 cities.… Read the rest
Are temporary uses back in town?
EURA Conversations Post #19 – 22 February 2021
by Robin Chang, Department of European Planning Cultures, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Temporary uses were alternatives to conventional and rational planning, but are now recognizable ways to collectively produce and maintain space while claiming rights. As zones of social transitions, they enable individuals with shared values and interests to catalyse change through simple rearrangements and designs.… Read the rest
Please, stop turning the temporary into tokenism
EURA Conversations Post #20 – 8 March 2021
by Sara Caramaschi, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy
As discussed by some, the reconceptualization of temporariness will be among the many post-pandemic challenges to consider. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, a common response has been to mobilize a variety of temporary arrangements as ad hoc physical solutions.… Read the rest
Urban green space and the mental health of young people
EURA Conversations Post #21 – 22 March 2021
Isabelle Bray, Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing, University of the West of England, Bristol
Urbanisation is seen as a solution to the current environmental crisis, yet at the same time the global trend towards urbanisation is having a detrimental effect on our mental health.… Read the rest
Urban greenspace during lockdown
EURA Conversations Post #22 – 12 April 2021
Danielle Sinnett, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol
Greenspaces in urban areas are critical for a host of environmental, economic and social reasons. As we saw in the last EURA Conversation, they benefit our mental health, providing space for exercise, rest and relaxation.… Read the rest
Education
EURA Conversations Post #23 – 26 April 2021
Maria Antónia Pires de Almeida, Researcher at CIES, ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon
In Portugal municipalities are responsible for school infrastructures and staff, whereas teachers are provided by the Ministry of Education. In face of the Covid-19 pandemic, a state of emergency was declared on March 18th, 2020. Schools and universities were closed, and online teaching was enforced, as well as a state program for TV-schooling.… Read the rest
The Response of Urban Africa to COVID-19
EURA Conversations Post #24 – 10 May 2021
Costanza La Mantia, In-house Technical Advisor at Rwanda Ministry of Infrastructure for the World Bank-led Rwanda Urban Development Project Phase II (RUDP II), Rwanda, Kigali
UN-Habitat estimated that 95% of all COVID cases worldwide are located within urban areas. African cities are historically characterized by unequal spatial patterns and a substantial lack of networked basic infrastructure, making most inhabitants unable to meet their basic needs.… Read the rest
How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the use of public space?
EURA Conversations Post #25 – 24 May 2021
Evangelia Athanassiou, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Research on public space was already proliferating long before the COVID-19 pandemic started. And so were worries regarding the erosion of its true function as a democratic space accessible to everybody as well as projections of “the end of public space”.… Read the rest
COVID-19 – a view from Trinidad and Tobago
EURA Conversations Post #26 – 7 June 2021
Julia R. Kotzebue, habitant at the Institute of Geography at the University of Hamburg, and guest researcher at the Department of Geography at the University of West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
At the beginning of this year, when many European countries and especially their cities were confronted by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), praised Keith Christopher Rowley, Prime Minister of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for the health protecting measures and leadership his government had introduced to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.… Read the rest
Rewilding the Post-Covid City
EURA Conversations Post #27 – 21 June 2021
Siân Moxon, Centre for Urban and Built Ecologies, School of Art Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University
COVID-19 stems from our mistreatment of wildlife, but wildlife could ultimately profit, if the pandemic prompts us to rethink our relationship with nature and plan a green recovery. This is especially true in cities, where urban rewilding is critical to rebuilding healthy, resilient communities.… Read the rest
COVID-19 and the movement to tackle racial inequality
EURA Conversations Post #28 – 05 July 2021
Robin Hambleton, University of the West of England, Bristol
In June 2020 the links between the COVID-19 calamity and a renewed campaign to end racism in the modern world came together at a dramatic public protest here in Bristol, of which more in a moment.… Read the rest