City Responses to Disruptions in 2020: From Lockdowns to Aftermath

This book presents the integrating of economics and urban geography to create a framework of cooperation around the idea of urban economic stability. It explores these disciplines through the economic lens and creates a collaborative environment for addressing the global challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and future global shocks. Environmental advocates and proponents of economic growth are increasingly at odds—having looked at the economic impact of the decline of the environment as well as the environmental loss that occurs with unchecked growth and urbanization. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the global scene. The world shook in its foundations, as a number of countries’ lockdown affected not only the global economy but also society and the environment. The global community has seen the negative impact of COVID-19 on our economies. There have been steep declines in gross domestic product, job losses have been in the millions, and people have seen their incomes fall. An unplanned shutdown has taken its toll and has been a shock to the economies of the world. Past shocks and how they have impacted urban economies as well as for how long are core to bettering our understanding of present and future urban economic change. The underlying economic factors that make a shock more damaging to certain economies or industries, as well as understanding these vulnerabilities, help entities recover from economic shocks and allow them to better understand how impacts on individual businesses can be implemented. The pandemic revealed the need to adopt a global development approach, taking into consideration four dimensions: global value chains, debt, digitalization, and the environment. Topics related to the causation and lockdown are explored through a number of case studies from around the world.

Giuseppe T. Cirella, Professor of Human Geography, works at the Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland, where he received a Doctor of Habilitation (Dr. Hab.) in Economics and Finance. He specializes in economic development, environmental social science, and sustainability. His interdisciplinary background also includes socio-political research throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, and China. After completing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) at Griffith University, Australia, within the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Management, on developing a sustainability-based index, he founded the Polo Center of Sustainability in Italy. Notably, he has held professorships and scientific positions at the University of Pretoria, South Africa; Saint Petersburg State University, Russia; Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, China; Life University, Cambodia; and Free University of Bozen, Italy. In his early career, he worked with the Canadian International Development Agency in Indonesia as well as with Radarsat International in Brazil.

Bharat Dahiya is Director of Research Center for Sustainable Development and Innovation at the School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Thailand. He is Extraordinary Professor at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa, and Adjunct Faculty at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. An award-winning urbanist, he combines cutting-edge research, policy analysis, and development practice aimed at examining and tackling socioeconomic, environmental, and governance issues in the global urban context of sustainable development. Since the early 1990s, his research and professional work has focused on sustainable cities and urbanization, strategic urban planning and development, urban infrastructure, urban environment, climate change and urban resilience, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, and cultural heritage and landscapes.