Editors: Ali Madanipour (Guest Editor), Nadia Caruso, Ender Peker
[the deadline has been extended until 31 December 2021]
Covid-19 pandemic hit cities all around the world as an acute shock. Both in the emergency and recovery periods, we have seen the significance of local action in search of urgent responses to the challenges created by the pandemic in cities. One way or another, planning authorities have developed temporary solutions trying to cope with the health problems in everyday life. While different actors developed strategies deployed to deal with mostly the impact on public health, it is questionable how they respond to the urban inequalities derived from socio-spatial injustice in cities.
At the moment, a number of cities are debating the need for new long-term recovery plans and programmes in order to develop frames and new visions for policy and practice. This moment could be considered as a new window of opportunity to trigger changes. These attempts display the significance of preparing cities for known and unknown stresses in future. The current situation opens up a main question: Could the pandemic shock be a triggering point for learning how to respond to complex environmental, health, and socio-spatial inequalities? In what ways can it catalyse the development of alternative coping mechanisms for future challenges? How can local authorities respond to future crises better? In the first period of emergency the public action has been devoted to health measures and management of public spaces. Going beyond these dimensions, what type of spatial mediums are needed? And more specifically, how do local authorities approach planning and design of public spaces for all in this changing context? What new conditions may provide the ability to manage urban inequalities in public spaces?
We are specifically interested in mapping the opportunities crisis may produce, and the different planning and design-related effective responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in different socio-spatial contexts. Contributions, including research papers and shorter pieces, may report empirical and/or theoretical inquiries in relation, but not limited, to any of the following themes:
-
Challenges for planning and designing public spaces
-
Temporality and public space
-
Change in urban governance: demands, actors, resources, initiatives and forms of support
-
Spatial effects of forced migration and mobility
-
Planning and designing new modes of consumption
-
Rise in the socio-spatial inequalities (gentrification, polarization, marginalization...)
-
Transformative urban recovery programs
-
Changes in mobility and infrastructures (needs and solutions)
-
Emerging new lifestyle patterns in cities
