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THE ZOONOTIC CITY: Urban Political Ecology and the Pandemic Imaginary.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Abstract

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic this article takes a longer view of the evolving relationship between urbanization and the range of zoonotic diseases that have spread from animals to humans. I suggest that the existing interpretation of epidemiological transitions remains overly Eurocentric and requires a more nuanced conception of global environmental history. Similarly, the conceptualization of urban space within these teleological schemas has relied on a narrow range of examples and has failed to fully engage with networked dimensions to urbanization. At an analytical level I consider the potential for extending the conceptual framework offered by urban political ecology to take greater account of the epidemiological dimensions to contemporary urbanization and its associated pandemic imaginary. I examine how contemporary health threats intersect with complex patterns of environmental change, including the destruction of biodiversity (and trade in live animals), the co-evolutionary dynamics of viruses and other pathogens, and wider dimensions to the global technosphere, including food production, infrastructure networks, and the shifting topographies of peri- or ex-urban contact zones.

Description

Funder: H2020 European Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663

Keywords

Covid‐19, epidemiological transitions, pandemic imaginary, urban epidemiology, urban political ecology, zoonoses

Journal Title

Int J Urban Reg Res

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0309-1317
1468-2427

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
European Research Council (340077)