“The city will survive coronavirus”, an essay by Thomas J. Campanella and Lawrence J. Vale, has been published in the Oxford University Press blog, OUPblog. In unprecedented times of retreat from public life, Thomas and Lawrence reflect on the meaning of urban resilience and recovery. This essay builds upon concepts from their co-edited book, 'The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster', published by the Oxford University Press as well.

“City streets and spaces normally teeming with people are nearly deserted now, evoking scenes from a Terry Gilliam film.  In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 we have shut down the sites where the rituals of daily urban life unfold, “third places” like cafes and bars and community centers.  We are increasingly isolated in our homes, turning even Manhattan into something akin to a suburban cul-de-sac. (. . .) One of the most important questions to consider is that of recovery. What does it mean for a city to recover? The broad cultural question of recovery is more than a problem of “disaster management,” however daunting and important that may be. Are there common themes that can help us understand the processes of physical, political, social, economic, and cultural renewal and rebirth? What counts as urban resilience? Whose resilience matters?”

Read the full blog here

About the authors:

Thomas J. Campanella is an associate professor of city planning at Cornell University, and director of the Urban and Regional Studies Program. He is a historian of city planning and the urban built environment. Campanella teaches and writes about the culture-space nexus in a variety of contexts, seeking to explain the manifold agents, actors, and forces that have shaped urban landscapes around the world. He has received Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the James Marston Fitch Foundation. His books include The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World (2008), and Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm (2003), winner of the Spiro Kostof Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. He has held visiting appointments at Columbia, Harvard GSD, Nanjing University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Campanella holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999), an M.L.A. from Cornell (1991), and a B.S. from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (1986).

Lawrence J. Vale is associate dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Director of the Resilient Cities Housing Initiative (RCHI). He previously served as Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 2002-2009 and is currently Associate Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Vale is the author of many books examining urban design and housing, including Architecture, Power, and National Identity (Spiro Kostof Book Award), From the Puritans to the Projects (Best Book in Urban Affairs, Urban Affairs Association), Reclaiming Public Housing (Paul Davidoff Book Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning); Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities (Best Book in Urban Affairs, Urban Affairs Association; Best Book on United States Planning History, International Planning History Society); and After the Projects: Public Housing Redevelopment and the Governance of the Poorest Americans (Oxford University Press, 2019). He is also co-editor, with Thomas J. Campanella, of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster.

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