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.