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!
Robin Hambleton and Ignazio Vinci
Co-editors of the EURA Conversations series
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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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#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.
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#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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Evidently, the Covid-19 crisis poses great danger to peoples’ health and to the economy. Nevertheless, just as with any crisis, Covid-19 represents not only disruption but also opportunity.
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Three important reasons why place should be central to the development of any successful post COVID-19 strategy.
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Covid-19 is the most mapped disease in history by public administrations, data journalists, and scholars attempting to depict its urban geography. Snow’s map proved that far from being airborne, cholera was related to unsafe water sources that needed to be re-planned, whereas empirical evidence shows the opposite for coronavirus.
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The instruments at the disposal of the cities could make a difference. And any discussion about instruments requires, in my view, a look at relations between different levels of government (intergovernmental).
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Safety and freedom have always been qualities expected from and connected to cities. In ancient and medieval times, city walls were a symbol of shelter and protection from external threats. They signaled a territory governed under a rule of well-known law [...]. 2020 has, perhaps, turned our ideas about the city upside down. Many of the largest cities in the world – those with the highest number of infected and ill people, with overcrowded hospitals, with constant ambulance sirens, and with suddenly ominously empty squares and bars – do not offer a feeling of safety anymore
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I would like to contribute to this series of EURA Conversations by suggesting that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is for all of us to give “good” information. Nevertheless, I am not going to tell you about the proliferation of news about the pandemic, ranging from scientific and objective data to images on long ambulance queues in front of hospitals. On the contrary, I would like to offer you a reflection on how news can be dangerous to some vulnerable population groups if incorrectly mediated.
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A few weeks ago, a column in Time magazine was accompanied by an eloquent drawing: in it, a big red X overlapped the number 2020 and, just below, an inscription said ‘The worst year ever’. There are many reasons to recognise that the Time’s statement isn’t without foundation.
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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.
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#18
Distancing
By
Henrique Dorneles De Castro
UFRGS - 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’ concerns about social distancing becoming the next pandemic, I indeed think this is a very possible path for post COVID-19 cities
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#19
Temporary uses 1
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
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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 solutionss
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#21
Mental Health
By
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
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#21
Greenspace under lockdown
By
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. They benefit our mental health, providing space for exercise, rest and relaxation
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