Cascading Effects of COVID-19 on Cities: A Sociological Approach to a Pandemic

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are broad, unexpected, cascading, and cumulative. The interconnectedness of the different factors has produced unforeseen disastrous consequences in cities. Those effects have penetrated widely across different functional areas in a multi-scale and wavy manner. Under such conditions, the form and degree of urban impacts of COVID-19 has been differentiated by class, place, gender, nationality, and other characteristics. Due to the nature of the pandemic, the process of policy responses to COVID-19 has often been mediated by the collection, analytics, and modelling of various clinical, hospital, and social data. A series of responses to the pandemic has created unexpected challenges to make a city more data-driven. At the same time, its effects are still channeled through the political arena and other institutional settings; the social still matters. How to manage cascading urban effects of COVID-19 needs to be assured by democratic decision-making processes and fair procedures.