"What is ours to do?" Connection during a pandemic's time of shelter-in-place

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a 2020 effort by the Cities Research Group of the University of Orange, United States, to create and pilot educational materials that could help organizations participate in collective recovery from the converging crises of the Covid-19 pandemic, racial oppression and climate change. Because of "shelter-in-place" strategies for reducing pandemic spread, the city as a site of human activity was fundamentally altered, undermining the "solid ground" the urban space had provided for collective life. Building on previous experience with mobilizing organizations for disaster recovery, the Cities Research Group launched, "What is ours to do?" an initiative centered on mobilizing organizations to stand in place of the public space and sphere and to enable recovery by serving as the "site of community and human connection" [Sorkin, Michael (1992a). Introduction: Variations on a theme park. In M. Sorkin (Ed.), Variations on a theme park The New American city and the end of public space (pp. xi-xv). Hill & Wang]. "What is ours to do?" asks every organization to consider, in light of their original roles and obligations, how they might contribute to the people's needs for resources, justice and a sense of "solid ground." The assumption of organizational responsibility helps to provide these necessities for people in times when the ground has shifted, thereby lifting morale, saving lives and pointing the way to a just future.