What is the urban without physical mobilities? COVID-19-induced immobility in the mobile risk society

Abstract

Since the World Health Organization's (WHO) declared the Coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, the virus has invaded lives around the globe. The ongoing health, social and economic crisis that followed forced urban life, business, culture, community etc. into idle mode for weeks resulting from mandated immobility. What was once taken for granted as the essence of urban experience such as cultural activities, meeting friends, relatives and colleagues in public space or in professional encounters, disappeared overnight. Free movement became significantly restricted all over the world. It seemed that immobility, social and physical distancing, and isolation were the only antidote to the fast-moving virus. For many people, working from home while also schooling their children and providing social care at a distance, peak activity at maximum physical immobility became the "new normal." A culture emerged where rules and norms of mobilities previously taken for granted were re-negotiated and re-defined. Before the crisis and despite the negative ecological side effects, mobility has been positively connotated as a signifier for progress and success. Under the Corona regime mobility turned into a life-threatening risk. The theory of reflexive modernization, risk society and the mobilities paradigm are used to discuss these contemporary shifts and transformations.

Postscript: in-pandemic academia, scholarly practices, and an ethics of care

“…As the world began to see a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, lockdowns eventually became the norm for many countries. Numerous media reports and scholarly works were produced to reflect on life under a 'new normal' that was said to have combined imposed physical immobility with the digitalised hypermobility of online activities (see Freudendal-Pedersen and Kesselring 2021). They have also called into question the sustainability of conventional forms of (capitalist) urbanism as a way of life.…”

Crisis, Urban Fabrics, and the Public Interest: The Israeli Experience

“…With regard specifically to architecture, when we see the neighbors' balconies all facing the same green garden (Figures 3 and 4, and particularly 5 and 6), the sense of togetherness is empowered, and tenants can draw comfort from a green, live landscape. With regard specifically to the Covid-19 crisis, when states lock people in and deny them the freedom to wander and choose, which is essential to good urbanity (Freudendal-Pedersen & Kesselring, 2020;Zecca et al, 2020), and particularly when civilians cooperate out of internal identification, fabrics that from the very beginning have relied on the value of the community rather than on urban experience, freedom of choice, and individual mobility are preferable. These spaces are perfect for crises because whatever form the crisis takes, be it pandemic, war, or natural disaster, the individuals with their self-centered needs and daily wars make way for the power of the community and mutual responsibility.…”

Searching for urban mobilities futures. Methodological innovation in the light of COVID-19

“…What we see now is for instance that businesses are starting saving rent by downsizing office space due to experiences with digital working and meeting. Former unavailable space (like parking spaces) are now used so that cafés and restaurants can have outdoor seating etc ( Freudendal-Pedersen & Kesselring, 2021 ). At the same time the boom of delivery services, the rise in logistics and in some places the fear of public transport have changed mobilities visibly.…”