 Critical Commentary: The city and the virusUrban Studies, 2023, vol. 60, issue 8, 1346-1364 Abstract: Cities around the world are the epicentres of the coronavirus pandemic: both in the first wave, as the disease spread from East Asia, and now, as many countries enter a third wave of infections. These spatial patterns are still far from properly understood, though there is no shortage of possible explanations. I set out the emerging theories about cities’ role in the spread of coronavirus, testing these against existing studies and new analysis for English conurbations, cities and towns. Both reveal an urbanised public health crisis, in which vulnerabilities and health impacts track (a) urban structural inequalities, and (b) wider weaknesses in institutions, their capabilities and leaders. I then turn to ‘post-pandemic’ visions of future cities. I argue that this framing is unhelpful: even with mass vaccination, COVID-19 is likely to remain one of many globalised endemic diseases. Instead, ‘pandemic-resilient’ urban places will require improved economic, social and physical infrastructure, alongside better public policy. Describing such future cities is still highly speculative: I identify five zones of change. Keywords: cities; coronavirus; inequalities; labour markets; urban governance; 城市; å† çŠ¶ç—…æ¯’; ä¸ å¹³ç‰; 劳动力市场; åŸŽå¸‚æ²»ç † (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:8:p:1346-1364 DOI: 10.1177/00420980211058383 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited |
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