A Return to Urbanism
April 17, 2020
What is the likely aftermath to the pandemic and the current near-universal withdrawal from society and embracement of screens as a way of engaging with others? What will come after this period of uncertainty and isolation? Clearly the focus on the pandemic will be with us for some time, with new science and research agendas on the pandemic and newly introduced technologies, like Zoom, a part of our lives. But history tells us that what has become for now a new normal will not persist. People will likely respond to the end of this pandemic much like they responded in the 1920s to the end of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and the end of World War 1: with, as I wrote in Politico, a “sense of relief and a search for community, relief from stress and pleasure.” What we saw in the 1920s was a reaction to the lifting of wartime anxiety with expressions of freedom, energy, and rebellion. The economy rebounded. People will likely react similarly when the uncertainty and isolation we face now is relieved. I imagine this could manifest as a return to urbanism, as people come together in cities for comfort and enjoyment that only cities can provide.
Mary Frances Berry is Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought, Professor of History and Africana Studies, Penn School of Arts and Sciences.
