Virucity. Rethinking the urban system

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/6971
Keywords: COVID-19, Urban system, Post-pandemic scenarios, City risk

Abstract

The paper focuses attention on three fundamental points. The first one concerns an analysis of the urban condition perceived and detected directly by the observation of the city suddenly deprived of the fruition component and characterized by the functional reset of urban activities with the exception of health functions. The second element is attributable to a systemic interpretation of the phenomenon through the analysis of the effects on urban subsystems produced by the pandemic, recalling the holistic approach to the study of urban phenomena. The third element concerns the envisaging of possible post-virus urban scenarios for which a significant bifurcation is foreseen: on the one hand, if the virus produced a rethinking of life models and the need for new ways of acting and interacting in the city we could imagine an urban future characterized by a general rebalancing of anthropic contexts; on the other hand, if the desire to return to entropic and energy-consuming models will prevail, we will continue to witness the slow degradation of human and natural habitats that will lead to the “right” extinction of human beings. These alternatives underlie a series of dilemmas that the paper emphasizes as structuring elements of possible future urban scenarios, highlighting the fundamental role of urban scientists and planners.

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Author Biographies

Romano Fistola, Department of Engineering, University of Sannio

Romano Fistola is Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering of the University of Sannio since 2004. Master Science with honors at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Naples "Federico II". He was fellow and temporary researcher at the Institute of Planning and Land Management of the National Research Council of Italy (MISM) and has been  of the contractor 'University of Naples "Federico II" University of Pavia, adjunct professor at the University of Naples "Federico II" University of Naples "Parthenope" and dellUniversità of Sannio. He was permanent researcher at the Institute of Planning and Land Management of the National Research Council of Italy (Naples) from 1996 to 2003 and member of the Scientific TIP of the institute. Furthermore he was researcher (ICAR/20) at the University of Sannio, Department of Engineering. He was a visiting researcher at the Center for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) under the direction of prof. J.B. Goddard and served as lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Building, Environmental Design and Planning, Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London and at the European Masters (MSc): "Regional Policies and Development in Europe”, University of Graz. In 2005 he was elected member of the Board of the Italian Regional Science (AISR), in which role he was reelected until 2010. Since 2004 he holds the course "Technology Planning" at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sannio and teaches in the integrated course of "integrated town planning and transport". He teaches "Geographical Information Science" at the PhD in Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II". He collaborated at several researches in the field of urban and regional planning, financed by  CNR and by the MIUR. He collaborated with the Department of Town and Country Planning of the University of Naples “Federico II” .
He is currently member of the National Institute of Urban Planning and designated as the auditor of the INU Campania.

He is author of beyond 130 papers published on national and international books and journals.

Dino Borri, Politecnico di Bari

Professor Emeritus and Contract Professor of Territory Engineering in the Bari Polytechnic, he is Director of the University Master in Urban Regeneration and Management in the Lum (Free University Jean Monnet Bari), Research Associate in the Loa (Applied Ontology Laboratory) National Research Council Trento. During his academic and research activity he assumed important roles for national and international institutions and has been editor in chief of the italian journal of urban planning: “Urbanistica”, president of the Italian Association of Regional Sciences (AISRe), coordinator of research groups and scientific projects. He also coordinated European research in environmental engineering in India, Morocco, Mexico, Tunisia, and Turkey. He is author of more than 200 national and international publications.

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Published
2020-06-19
How to Cite
FistolaR., & BorriD. (2020). Virucity. Rethinking the urban system. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 179-187. https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/6971
Issue
2020: Special Issue. Covid-19 vs City-20
Section
Special Issue - Covid-19 vs City-20

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