Governing Urban Marginality in the Post-Covid City. Part I

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on cities and urban life. Whilst there is emerging debate on the social, spatial, and economic directions of the ‘post-pandemic city’ (Florida et al, 2021), there has thus far been limited systematic investigation of whether and how the pandemic is reshaping the governance of ‘urban marginality’; that is, the way in which poor, excluded and stigmatized populations, and their relationships to urban space, are managed by governments and other powerful actors. The purpose of this session is to understand how, if at all, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the governance of urban marginality by showcasing contemporary empirical work from across the Global North and Global South. While there is some emerging research showing how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the governance of urban marginality across a variety of domains and localities, little is known about whether and how these disruptions are transforming the underlying modalities and structures of marginality governance—and whether these transformations are likely to endure. Submission to this session should address one of the following: 1) understand if the pandemic has engendered brand new, revised, or unchanging modes of marginality governance; 2) examine the convergences and differences between changes experienced in different cities and regions; 3) explain and critique the impact these changes have made on marginalized populations, 4) contextualize the socio-historical, institutional, and political-economic factors that inform post-pandemic changes the governance of urban marginality.