Smart Cities After Covid-19: Ten Narratives.

Abstract

Speculations about the possible implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on cities have become a home-office leisure pursuit of planners and journalists who have been forced by anti-virus policies to stay at home, look after their children and entertain their husbands or wives, learn how to do online teaching and practise online shopping despite earlier pledges to never use Amazon's services. This paper will not speculate on the many implications of the pandemic for people and the economy. It will only focus on the likely impact that the Covid-19 pandemic will have on smart-city development and on policies to apply digital technologies in urban development. This will be carried out by sketching io brief narratives that will range from: "Return to Normal after Summer" to "New Power for the Public Sector" and "Tourism at Home". The paper will conclude with a brief assessment of winners and losers, and anticipate that smart-city development policies will experience a boost after Covid-19.