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One - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2023

Pierre Filion
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
Brian Doucet
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
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Summary

The virus which causes COVID-19 is an invisible threat that has hugely impacted cities and their inhabitants in numerous ways, as also outlined in other volumes in this series. Volume 1 focused on how pre-existing inequalities within society have augmented and exacerbated when they have intersected with the pandemic; Volume 2 expanded on this theme with a specific focus on housing. Yet, though the virus itself might be imperceptible, its impact is sometimes very visible, perhaps most so in urban public spaces and spaces of mobility, which are the central themes of this third volume. Since March 2020, cities all over the world have restricted the access to, and use of, public spaces, in order to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 (Honey-Rosés et al, 2020). In countries with very strict lockdowns, this resulted in empty streets and marketplaces, and spatial and temporal restrictions limiting the frequency, duration, and reach of outdoor visits.

Although such restrictions generally applied to everyone, they have nevertheless rendered socio-economic inequalities along spatial lines sharper and clearer. Indeed, as Moore (2020) puts it, ‘the division between the private and public space is being played out in this bizarre inability to acknowledge that many do not have private outside space: that they rely on a communal “outdoors” that is now to be avoided and policed’. As such, the COVID-19 crisis added a third process producing the often proclaimed ‘end’ or ‘death’ of public space, as emphasized by Van Eck et al (2020: 375): ‘In addition to the privatisation and commercialisation of public spaces, healthrelated regulations by local governments impact the nature of public spaces as important meeting places.’ Consequently, 2020 has been proclaimed as the ‘year without public space’.

Yet, while at the start of the pandemic public space was considered a threat to urban health that needed to be avoided and restricted, gradually this representation shifted towards the acknowledgment that public spaces are critical infrastructures for the operation of cities (for example for access to health services and food and resource distribution) as well as the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of their inhabitants (UN Habitat, 2020). Cities as diverse as Milan, Paris, Bogotá, and Vancouver (see Chapter Sixteen, this volume) transformed previously car-oriented streets into spaces specifically assigned to cyclists and pedestrians, so that people could commute, exercise and relax while keeping their physical distance.

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Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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