The city and the virus

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.

Global Harmonization of Urbanization Measures: Proceed with Care

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities and towns, a marked increase from today’s level of 55 percent. If the general trend is unmistakable, efforts to measure it precisely have been beset with difficulties: the criteria defining urban areas, cities and towns differ from one country to the next and can also change over time for any given country. The past decade has seen great progress toward the long-awaited goal of scientifically comparable urbanization measures, thanks to the combined efforts of multiple disciplines. These efforts have been organized around what is termed the “statistical urbanization” concept, whereby urban areas are defined by population density, contiguity and total population size. Data derived from remote-sensing methods can now supply a variety of spatial proxies for urban areas defined in this way. However, it remains to be understood how such proxies complement, or depart from, meaningful country-specific alternatives. In this paper, we investigate finely resolved population census and satellite-derived data for the United States, Mexico and India, three countries with widely varying conceptions of urban places and long histories of debate and refinement of their national criteria. At the extremes of the urban–rural continuum, we find evidence of generally good agreement between the national and remote sensing-derived measures (albeit with variation by country), but identify significant disagreements in the middle ranges where today’s urban policies are often focused.

Ubuntu: A countermeasure for challenges of child-rearing

The research examines the contributions of the African Indigenous Knowledge System and, more precisely, the African traditional philosophy of community or Ubuntu as a countermeasure against the challenges of child-rearing in a changing society. The research contends that Ubuntu has a sagacity from which the world can learn lessons to combat the challenges of child-rearing in a changing society. Challenges named above are mainly due to society becoming more modernized, and individualistic thereby neglecting African ways of child rearing. This is the case with urbanization whereby many people move to urban places for economic prospects. Another challenge is that of family decay worldwide, where there’s an increase in a number of single parenting due to a number of factors. Some of those factors are due to the high divorce rate, the death of a partner etc. The author argues that Ubuntu can contribute to offering helpful solutions to the challenges under study. The research utilises the secondary research or desk research methodology. The results show that Ubuntu is a likely good countermeasure against the myriad of challenges in child-rearing worldwide. The research concludes that the utilisation of this African philosophy may be extremely valuable in contributing supportively to the many challenges of childrearing faced by people worldwide.

Identity of Kaunas Inhabitants: Memories of Three Generations

The aim of this paper is to determine the identity of three generations of Kaunas inhabitants. Kaunas is the second biggest city in Lithuania. During the Soviet occupation, new districts such as Dainava, Kalniečiai, Eiguliai and Šilainiai were built. This paper is based on A. Assmann’s theoretical approach to communicative memory. Empirical material was collected using field research methods: in-depth, semi-structured interviews. 115 narratives were analysed, employing comparative, retrospective, narrative analysis methods. The results of this research suggest that narratives of communicative memory can help to create cultural identity related to specific urban places or the ones displaced from these places.

A universal standard for health-promoting places. Example of assessment – on the basis of a case study of Rahway River Park

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to development of approaches to the evaluation of the design of public open green spaces (POS). This paper presents a universal standard for the design of health-promoting urban places. The standard is a conceptual framework which was developed after visiting over one hundred public parks and therapeutic gardens in Europe and the United States. The universal standard is a simple and effective tool that can be used by both professional designers and non-professionals to improve the health-promoting qualities of open green spaces. Rahway River Park, designed by Olmsted Brothers in 1925, serves as a case study.

Landscape Political Ecology: Rural-Urban Pattern of COVID-19 in Nigeria

The socio-ecological and political properties of rural and urban landscapes have been argued to produce the differentials in rural-urban health. However, the mechanism of the COVID-19 pattern in this socio-political-ecological perspective has not been understood in Africa. The study used spatial techniques to explore the pattern of urbanization-COVID-19 nexus in Nigeria. It has been argued that three elements (demographic dynamics, infrastructure or governance) typify the socio-political-ecological landscape of urban places. They shape the spread of infectious diseases. We explored the extent to which these factors predict the COVID-19 pattern in Nigeria. The study used data from Nigeria’s Centre for Diseases Control and the National Bureau of Statistics. The results indicate that more urban states in Nigeria tend to have higher COVID-19 cases than rural states. The COVID-19 pattern is best predicted by population dynamics more than other elements. The result indicates demographic attributes are more critical to surges in COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. Places with higher populations and densities will tend to have more spread of the virus than places with lesser populations and densities. Therefore, in a future outbreak, places of high densities should be given more attention to prevent further spread.

Citizen Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together

This paper explores the roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning. Drawing on a selection of core articles in planning scholarship, it investigates how citizens (re-)shape urban places by responding to perceived flaws in how spatial planning addresses societal challenges. Formal planning interventions are often spatially and socially selective, ineffective, or even non-existent due to a lack of institutional capacities and resources. Consequently, citizens take on roles that they consider as missing, underperformed or ineffective. The paper shows that this results in a variety of practices complementary to, independent from, or opposing formal planning actors and interventions. Five dilemmas citizens face are identified, highlighting the tensions that surface on exclusion, participation, and governmental responsibilities when citizens claim their role in urban governance.