People’s absence from public places: academic research in the post-covid-19 era

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed how people can safely use public spaces, particularly in densely populated urban environments. This short commentary revealed the effects of people’s absence in public places due to the series of lockdowns or social distancing policies imposed due to the pandemic. The argument presented was that the absence of people affects urban studies, and considers urban atmospheres in public places during such pandemic times. This article provides a six-step conceptual framework that guides urban planners and designers in reconstructing public space settings for affective atmospheres based on new realities in people’s presence and proximity.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus
• social distancing
• public places
• urban Planning and design

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the editor of Urban Geography’s Urban Pulse series, Pablo Shiladitya Bose, for his effort in providing the details of recent debates in the domain of Urban Geography. We acknowledge the effort of the anonymous peer reviewers for their supportive and inspiring comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The corresponding author was supported during this research by a grant from The Science, Technology, and Innovation Funding Authority (STDF), Egypt, under grant number [STDF-BARG 37234].