Is the ‘student city’ lost? The rhythms of Lodz as a consumption‐oriented student city through the COVID‐19 pandemic lens

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic calls into question the hosting of students as an urban growth formula after the spread of online education. Therefore, we look at Lodz, Poland, to understand how student cities operate during the pandemic and gain insights into their futures. We unfold the prepandemic and intrapandemic rhythms of students' presence and activities in Lodz's time‐space and their attitudes toward the postpandemic future. We show that the pandemic spurred many students to escape from Lodz and changed the activities of those staying in the city by limiting their frequencies and locations. However, we expect students to repopulate Lodz, although its postpandemic existence might evolve through further rhythm changes. Moreover, it will depend not only on the students' demand for higher education per se but also for collective consumption opportunities. Therefore, the pandemic itself does not seem to render the idea of a ‘student city’ obsolete in the long term.

Place identity and urban attachment of international students

“…I can ride about 200 km a day if the bicycle is good. (...) When the coronavirus 6 As for student population, particularly foreign student population, the coronavirus pandemic led, first of all, to the limitation of their movement and the modification of the time-space pace common for cities with the dominantly student population, i.e., the pace of the cities depending on the presence or absence of this population group (regarding student accommodation, organization of lessons, purchase-consumer habits, spending free time) (Zasina & Nowakowska, 2023). The pandemic also led to the introduction of numerous limitations in socio-economic life, i.e., the socio-economic hibernation for the purpose of preventing the spread of the virus (Krzysztofik, Kantor-Pietraga, Spórna, 2020).…”

“…2) Без обзира на "нову нормалност" која је наступила по избијању пандемије корона вируса 6 , и још увек се рефлектује на облике понашања попут даљинског 6 Кад је реч о популацији студената, посебно међународних, пандемија вируса корона утицала је, пре свега, на лимитацију њиховог кретања и измену временско-просторног ритма уобичајеног за градове са доминантном студентском популацијом, односно ритма градова који зависе од присуства или одсуства ове групе становништва (у погледу студентског смештаја, организације наставе, куповно-потрошачких навика, провођења слободног времена) (Zasina & Nowakowska, 2023). Пандемија је утицала на увођење бројних ограничења друштвеноекономског живота, односно на социоекономску хибернацију ради супротстављања ширењу вируса (Krzysztofik, Kantor-Pietraga, Spórna, 2020).…”