EURA Conversations

Welcome to EURA Conversations

EURA Conversations is a blog conceived as a democratic space to share experiences, offer reflections and open up conversations on various aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The questions we hope to address along with readers include.

Does the Covid-19 pandemic raise new questions for urban studies? What are the implications of this disaster for the future of cities and urban governance? Amid all the suffering are there positive stories and insights to unearth? Can international exchange help different societies share good ideas and practices on how to recover from the Covid-19 onslaught?

This new interactive space has been created to facilitate exchange of views on how different cities and communities are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to explore ideas on what our world might look like in the future.
Each Post is less than 500 words. Please consider leaving a “Comment” at the end of the Post to stimulate fresh thinking and idea development.

If you would like to offer a Post to appear in this space please send your proposal in a Word document with: your title, your text, your name and affiliation to: secretariat@eura.org
You will reach scholars in over twenty countries!

#1 Leadership

By

Robin Hambleton

University of the West of England

I suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is for countries to have good local governance. In particular, I sense that local leaders, in and outside the state, have played a very positive role in bringing people together to solve problems arising from the pandemic.

But this is, in truth, a hunch. If you know of any examples of inspirational local leadership it would be great to hear about them.

(Read more…)

#2
Proximity

By

Ignazio Vinci

University of Palermo

As I write these lines, all over the world the Covid-19 pandemic is still disrupting a broad range of aspects we usually refer to as “urban life”. In many countries lock down will be on the government agenda for weeks, with no expectation for the opening of concert halls and sports arenas, cinemas and museums. In many others social interactions are still minimized for fear that people’s efforts to recover from the pandemic may be frustrated by a new virus explosion.

(Read more…)

#3 Experimentation

By

Filipe Teles

University of Aveiro, Portugal

I would like to advocate that the Covid-19 pandemic can serve as a catalyst, encouraging cities and local authorities to fast-track urban transformation. A prime example of this type of change has been given in several cities all round the world where adjustments in public transportation systems were implemented in just a few days. Similar experiences within the most diverse areas of city governance were applied: soft mobility, pop-up place making, relieve of crowded areas...

(Read more…)

#4 Cycling

By

Kartsten Zimmermann

Technical University of Dortmund, Germany

The corona pandemic has a wide range of effects on our cities and many observers speak of cities in crisis. Some of the effects are short term and immediate (closure of shops, bars, schools, museums, collapse of parts of the economy etc.), some will be long term. One of these short-term measures with an eventual long-term effect is discussed with a positive undertone: the opening up of temporary additional cycling lanes or even the closure of streets for cars.

(Read more…)

#5 People’s responses

By

Susanne Søholt

Oslo Metropolitan University, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research.

In the first EURA Conversation, Robin Hambleton highlights the importance of good local leadership for handling the corona pandemic. However, the success of local and national policies to fight back the pandemic depends first and foremost on peoples’ responses to policies restricting their everyday life – every day. That is, it depends on peoples’ trust to or fear of their authorities- and the virus.

(Read more…)

#6 Healthy public spaces

By

Marichela Sepe

Italian National Research Council & University of Naples, Italy.

The 2020 public health emergency has interested the whole word and changed habits and use by people of places and cities. In many countries public spaces became completely empty and new urban landscapes have substituted for the previous one, transforming the private into public. Houses and balconies were used as work and study spaces, breaking down the boundaries between public and private life.

(Read more…)

#7 Community response

By

Paula Russell

School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin.

In the movies the dystopian view of a pandemic and its aftermath is mass unrest, accompanied by a breakdown in law and order. In reality one of the most striking elements of the response to the COVID 19 pandemic is that communities have responded through support and solidarity.

(Read more…)

#8 Urban regeneration

By

Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Along the last months, we have been asking ourselves what changes should take place in the post-COVID city, what themes and approaches we need to put into practice and include in our reflection to emerge stronger from the unprecedented situation that we are facing as European society.

(Read more…)

#9 Social crisis

By

Iván Tosics

Metropolitan Research Institute, Hungary

In the opening COVID post Robin Hambleton wrote „Covid-19 discriminates in a brutal way … really hurting the people in society who are already vulnerable.” Yes, the usual statements that ‘everyone is affected’ hide the reality that people face the difficulties from very different positions.

(Read more…)