ABSTRACT
The future of airports and aeromobilities looked much different before Covid-19. Being a global growth-sector with a problematic environmental impact, the sector showed little inclination to radically re-think its potential futures. However, the advent of Covid-19 dramatically changed this. This paper is based on a research project related to Airport City Futures that was initiated before Covid-19. This timing, however, has enabled us to see a dramatic change in the assessment of future scenarios. In the paper we present four basic future scenarios that include both utopian and dystopian elements (business as usual, fortress airports, Ecoports, and Smart airports). We explore these on the background of a theoretical framework containing three themes: aeromobilities, future scenarios as a methodology, and the epidemic society. The paper thus explores the future of aeromobilities and potential innovations in air space by ‘thinking with' Covid-19. It presents critical reflections on how to democratize the future of aeromobilities in light of global disruption. © 2023 The European Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented disruption. The quantitative effects on health, economy, travel, social interaction and almost any walk-of-life imaginable are massive. There is no doubt that this is a deep crisis, with profound effects. As we speak estimations and extrapolations of what this means for the future of cities and societies takes on new heights. This paper is not about these ‘big effects’. Rather, it will invite a reflection upon the often taken-for-granted nature of mobilities and the contemporary city. We propose to ‘think with’ Covid-19 as it were in order to utilize it as a catalyst for bringing about more nuanced and deep descriptions of ‘banal’ everyday mobilities practices. For example, the standing in line at the bus-shed, the positioning and seating on the subway, the passing of pedestrians on the pavement, and the mobile negotiation of street spaces. The paper treat Covid-19 as a window into the ‘politics of visibility’. The paper presents two key concepts as tools for enabling this reflection. One is the notion of the ‘extended body’ and the other the ‘elastic situation’. These are exemplified in three short empirical vignettes of public space activities: queuing, running, and drive-in services. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.