Planetary Urbanization, Social Inequality and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract Code: 31378

Abstract

Henri Lefebvre writes of an unfolding “urban revolution” involving the pervasive and continuing expansion and influence of “urban society” into areas outside the city centre. Neil Brenner extends Lefebvre’s logic by describing how this urban expansion process is today global and universalizing in scope and as such could be described a process of “planetary urbanization”. In light of such work, this paper investigates the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the “forgotten densities” in those sites of extended urbanization situated at the urban peripheries.

Considering the peripheral sites surrounding the city of Toronto, Canada such as – residential suburbs, warehouse districts, airport areas, First Nations reserves and agricultural locales in which migrant labourers work – we discuss how urban public health governance of COVID-19, exercised through the adoption and implementation of outbreak control measures, was unevenly applied across the peripheral region in comparison to the city core, and how this led to particular challenges for certain groups due to differential risks in viral exposure as well as in reference to the levels of care available. We discuss how the uneven consequences of COVID-19 spread were exacerbated by existing inequalities based on socio-demographic factors such as race/ethnicity, the social class standing of certain neighbourhoods, and the infrastructure features associated with these. This includes a consideration of: housing stock (differences between well-maintained condominium towers, dilapidated apartment complexes, and large multigenerational houses); the location and types of industry present (large warehouse and distribution centres, multi-lane highways, well-developed trucking industry, an international airport).