Special Issue on Covid19
Open Access
International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR)
Volume 10,
Issue 2, April - June 2021
Indexed by: Compendex (Elsevier Engineering Index), INSPEC, SCOPUS, Web of
Science Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically
ISSN: 2160-9918; EISSN: 2160-9926
Editor-in-Chief: Carlos Nunes Silva (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
EDITORIAL PREFACE
Urban
E-Planning and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Response and Transformative
Recovery
Carlos Nunes
Silva (Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa,
Lisbon, Portugal)
ARTICLE 1
Successful
Government Responses to the Pandemic: Contextualizing National and Urban
Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak in East and West
Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko (Tampere University, Finland)
This article discusses national and local strategies for confronting
COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis sheds light on how societal context,
institutional arrangements, knowledge culture, and technology deployment
manifest in national responses to the pandemic. Discussion describes country
cases from East and South East Asia, on the one hand, and from Europe and
Asia-Pacific, on the other. The overall impression is that Asian cases reflect
proactivity and diligence, while Western responses are reactive and more often
than not slightly delayed. Both country groups include successes, while the
overwhelming majority of global benchmarks are Asian. As the management of
COVID-19 crisis is essentially a multi-level governance issue, discussion about
national strategies is supplemented with a glance at the role of cities. The
COVID-19-related urban challenges revolve around increased interest in urban
safety, creative approaches to and the uses of urban space, the rise of digital
urban platforms, and deeper insights on citizen engagement.
ARTICLE 2
Building
Resilient, Smart Communities in a Post-COVID Era: Insights From Ireland
Aoife Doyle (Future Analytics Consulting Ltd., Ireland), William Hynes
(Future Analytics Consulting Ltd., Ireland), Stephen M. Purcell (Future
Analytics Consulting Ltd., Ireland)
The COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly throughout the world in early 2020.
Beyond the substantial health impacts, the crisis has served as a catalyst for
a dramatic shift in working practices, a greater reliance on technology, and a
subsequent reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the most
heavily populated parts of the planet. Indeed, the crisis has highlighted the
interconnected nature of society's vulnerabilities while also demonstrating
that transformational change is possible. These rapid changes have ignited
debate around how to build more resilient societies and the role of planning in
promoting equitable and sustainable recovery. This article presents key
insights from Ireland, as policymakers grapple with these questions and the
role of technology in ensuring ongoing delivery of services and a continuation
of democratic processes. Specifically, this short article focuses on the impact
of the pandemic on town centres and regional growth in Ireland and the
potential interventions which can aid in addressing recently intensified local
challenges.
ARTICLE 3
Surveillance
in the COVID-19 Normal: Tracking, Tracing, and Snooping – Trade-Offs in Safety
and Autonomy in the E-City
Michael K.
McCall (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico), Margaret M. Skutsch
(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico), Jordi Honey-Roses
(University of British Columbia, Canada)
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of surveillance
technologies in cities around the world. The new surveillance systems are
unfolding at unprecedented speed and scale in response to the fears of
COVID-19, yet with little discussion about long-term consequences or
implications. The authors approach the drivers and procedures for COVID-19
surveillance, addressing a particular focus to close-circuit television (CCTV)
and tracking apps. This paper describes the technologies, how they are used,
what they are capable of, the reasons why one should be concerned, and how
citizens may respond. No commentary should downplay the seriousness of the
current pandemic crisis, but one must consider the immediate and longer-term
threats of insinuated enhanced surveillance, and look to how surveillance could
be managed in a more cooperative social future.
ARTICLE 4
COVID-19
Contact Tracing: From Local to Global and Back Again
Teresa Scassa (University of Ottawa, Canada)
This article surveys the rise of contact tracing technologies during the
COVID-19 pandemic and some of the privacy, ethical, and human rights issues
they raise. It examines the relationship of these technologies to local public
health initiatives, and how the privacy debate over these apps made the
technology in some cases less responsive to public health agency needs. The
article suggests that as countries enter the return to normal phase, the more
important and more invasive contact tracing and disease surveillance
technologies will be deployed at the local level in the context of employment,
transit, retail services, and other activities. The smart city may be co-opted
for COVID-19 surveillance, and individuals will experience tracking and monitoring
as they go to work, shop, dine, and commute. The author questions whether the
attention given to national contact tracing apps has overshadowed more local
contexts where privacy, ethical, and human rights issues remain deeply
important but relatively unexamined. This raises issues for city local
governance and urban e-planning.
ARTICLE 5
Pandemic-Driven
Technology Adoption: Public Decision Makers Need to Tread Cautiously
Pamela Robinson (Ryerson University, Canada), Peter A. Johnson (University
of Waterloo, Canada)
During the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, around the world,
evidence is mounting as to the unenveness of impacts across communities. There
are disproportionately more impacts on people who are elderly, economically
marginalized, immunologically compromised, and members of racialized and equity-seeking
communities. As part of the COVID-19 response, virus transmission mitigation
efforts including the use of new technology tools like contract tracing apps
are being explored. There are significant implications to the use of these
tools, including how they impact different community members and exacerbate
digital divide, exclusion, and surveillance issues. This article brings forward
a citizen participation framework that is instructive for decision-makers
charged with pandemic-driven technology adoption.
ARTICLE 6
Changing
Mobility Lifestyle: A Case Study on the Impact of COVID-19 Using Personal
Google Locations Data
Vít Pászto (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic & Moravian
Business College Olomouc, Czech Republic), Jaroslav Burian (Palacký University
Olomouc, Czech Republic & Moravian Business College Olomouc, Czech
Republic), Karel Macků (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic)
The article is focused on a detailed micro-study describing changes in the
behaviour of the authors in three months before and during the COVID-19
pandemic. The study is based on data from Google Location Service. Despite the
fact it evaluates only three people and the study cannot be sufficiently
representative, it is a unique example of possible data processing at such a
level of accuracy. The most significant changes in the behaviour of authors
before and during the COVID-19 quarantine are described and interpreted in
detail. Another purpose of the article is to point out the possibilities of
analytical processing of Google Location while being aware of personal data
protection issues. The authors recognize that by visualizing the real motion
data, one partially discloses their privacy, but one considers it very valuable
to show how detailed data Google collects about the population and how such data
can be used effectively.
ARTICLE 7
Smart
Technologies, Back-to-the-Village Rhetoric, and Tactical Urbanism: Post-COVID
Planning Scenarios in Italy
Teresa Graziano (Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment,
University of Catania, Italy)
This viewpoint article is aimed at critically scrutinizing both institutional
and bottom-up narratives about post-COVID planning scenarios in Italy. Through
a critical multimedia discourse analysis, the article tries to deconstruct the
most recurring narratives about the future of cities in Italy, particularly
those interlacing smart city rhetoric with alternative models of settlements
and “soft” planning micro-actions, in order to highlight both conflictual
perspectives and new potential paths to follow for a more inclusive tech-led
urban development.
ARTICLE 8
Exploring
the Smart Future of Participation: Community, Inclusivity, and People With
Disabilities
John Bricout (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA), Paul M. A. Baker
(Georgia Institute of Technology, USA), Nathan W. Moon (Georgia Institute of
Technology, USA), Bonita Sharma (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA)
COVID-19 is having an enormous impact on civic life, including public
services, governance, and the well-being of citizens. The pace and scope of
technology as a force for problem solving, connecting people, sharing
information, and organizing civic life has increased in the wake of COVID-19.
This article critically reviews how technology use influences the civic
engagement potential of the smart city, in particular for people with
disabilities. The article aims to articulate new challenges to virtual
participation in civic life in terms of accessibility, usability, and equity.
Next, the article proposes a framework for a smart participation future
involving smarter communities that utilize universal design, blended bottom-up,
and virtual community of practice (VCoP) approaches to planning and connecting
citizens with disabilities to smart cities. Policy and ethical implications of
the proposed smart participation future are considered.
ARTICLE 9
Technology
Use by Urban Local Bodies in India to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic
Falguni Mukherjee (Sam Houston State University, USA)
This article provides a comprehensive review of the use of information and
communication technologies by urban local bodies in India in their war against
the COVID-19 pandemic based on a detailed survey conducted during the pandemic
period. India reported its first case of COVID-19 in late January, and
government authorities have been on a war footing since then to curb the spread
of the virus. Following a tradition that has been instilled within government
agencies since the Modi Government came into power in 2014, local, state, and
central government agencies turned to a widespread use of geospatial,
surveillance and information and communication technologies as part of a
strategy to monitor and track movement, manage individuals, and enforce
quarantine norms. However, several important questions arise from the blind use
of technology that remain unanswered. The use of technology by government
agencies raise key questions on privacy, civil liberties, and suitability and
viability of their use.
ARTICLE 10
Communicative
Governance to Mitigate the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Delhi, India
Nidhi Vij Mali (University of Mississippi, USA), Srinivas Yerramsetti
(Independent researcher), Aroon P. Manoharan (University of
Massachusetts, Boston, USA)
Emerging democracies are handicapped by systemic weaknesses such as
inadequate healthcare safety nets, weak administrative capacities, and rigidly
hierarchical bureaucracies and conflicts between levels of political
leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic creates an urgent need for governments to
overcome these structural limitations and facilitate responsive governance.
This article uses the lens of communicative governance to describe how
governments respond to the emerging health emergency and its challenges. It
uses the case of the state of Delhi in India to analyze how the tools of
government were operated to govern during the early stages of an escalating health crisis. It documents
the unique policy and administrative practices that are driving the response to
the COVID-19 pandemic in the global South. In doing so, it points to the ways
in which urban e-planning can foster transformative capacities to support local
communities.
ARTICLE 11
Recombining
Place: COVID-19 and Community Action Networks in South Africa
Nancy Odendaal (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
The lockdown response taken by many governments in flattening the curve of
coronavirus infections has of course increased the reliance on digital tools to
enable work (for those able to do so) and social interaction. There are
emergent, somewhat contingent, and coproductive dynamics at work between
platforms and urban life and space with the contextual specificities of each,
no doubt, leading to different ICT-informed solutions. In South Africa, the
state has taken a phased but stronghold approach with unfortunate impacts on
livelihoods and food security, especially those in the informal economy and
those with part-time or insecure employment. The community action network (CAN)
initiative started as a means to enable neighbourhood assistance through
WhatsApp groups in Cape Town. In this article, the author reflects on how this
initiative reflects the early hopes of William Mitchell (and others) that saw
the potential for informational spaces to become more democratic as interfaces
of connection. In Cape Town, one may see Mitchell's vision fulfilled.
