Vulnerable or resilient? The response of informal settlements to COVID-19: The case of urban village communities in Beijing
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought topics of the impact, response and adaptation of cities in emergencies to the forefront. When compared with formal settlements, the problems faced by informal settlements are more prominent. We propose the framework of an actor-network theory, substantiated by an empirical study of three typical informal settlements in Haidian District, Beijing, in which the process, characteristics and internal mechanism of the spatial reconstruction of the informal settlements in response to COVID-19 are closely scrutinised. Human actors such as local governments, community volunteers, landlords, tenants and non-human actors all participated in the response to COVID-19 according to their goal vision and political logic, with the local government as the core driving force, forming an integrated actor network. Rooted in the special locality of informal settlements, the actor network was both hierarchical and flexible, and its inherent dynamism has proven to be efficient during COVID-19, resulting in social adaptation and spatial reconstruction. This study contributes to the cautiously optimistic estimate of similar urban community resilience in terms of global epidemics and enriches the understanding of their interlacing dynamics from the perspective of spatial reconstruction.
Source: Indoor and Built Environment
Authors: Ying Dong, Shunyi Wang, Aiping Lin, Fang Wang
Institution: Peking University
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Peking University
OpenAlex ID: W4297901649