Rethinking Urban Epidemiology: Natures, Networks and Materialities

Wolf, Meike

doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12381

Cited by 50 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 80 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, new pathogens and consequent diseases are in the essence of the matter underexplored and thus cannot be classified as an appropriate threat while entering territories. In the early stage of a newly emerging disease it is especially true that ‘microbes live in a borderless world’ (Wolf 2016, p. 973). In the particular case of a highly efficient person‐to‐person infection—as witnessed with COVID‐19—a pathogen can bypass common measures and emerge into territories almost unhindered.…”

Section: Theorising the Spread: The Covid‐19 Outbreak As A Spatial Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious Diseases as Socio‐Spatial Processes: The COVID‐19 Outbreak In Germany

Kuebart

Stabler

2020

Tijd voor Econ & Soc Geog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper argues that outbreaks of infectious diseases should be understood as socio‐spatial processes with complex geographies. Considering the different dimensions of space through which an outbreak unfolds, facilitates analysing spatial diffusion of infectious disease in contemporary societies. We attempt to highlight four relevant dimensions of space by applying the TPSN framework to the case of the recent COVID‐19 outbreak in Germany. By identifying key processes of disease diffusion in space, we can explain the spatial patterns of the COVID‐19 outbreak in Germany, which did not feature the well‐known patterns of spatially contagious as in or hierarchical diffusion. In contrast, we find superspreading events and especially relocation diffusion based on existing networks, on which the pathogen travelled like a blind passenger, to be more relevant. For us, these findings prove the value of combining relational thinking with geographic analysis for understanding epidemic outbreaks in contemporary societies.

show abstract

Section: Theorising the Spread: The Covid‐19 Outbreak As A Spatial Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious Diseases as Socio‐Spatial Processes: The COVID‐19 Outbreak In Germany

Kuebart

Stabler

2020

Tijd voor Econ & Soc Geog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We are now a majority urban species which poses new questions and challenges for the design of cities, transportation networks, and responding to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases (Connolly et al, 2020; Wolf, 2016). The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown these developments into even sharper view, especially with the accelerated extension of urban processes and forms into regions that had previously not been urbanized as well as heightened inter-urban connectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the relationships between COVID-19 and extended urbanization

Connolly

Ali

Keil

2020

Dialogues in Human Geography

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, the SARS‐CoV‐2 crisis exposed economic interdependencies and revealed the vulnerability of the just‐in‐time economic system based on global production chains. It also made clear that globalisation can facilitate the rapid and wide proliferation of the virus across the world through the networks of international mobility of people and goods (Ali & Keil 2006, 2007; Keil & Ali 2006; Wolf 2016). In the current ‘Corona‐crisis’, public and social media speculate that mobilities of goods and people are linked to specific local and regional outbreaks, such as the annual trek of Northern Europeans who go on ski holidays in the Alps and brought back the virus from the sunny slopes of the Italian mountains to their middle class neighbourhoods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban‐Rural Polarisation in Times of the Corona Outbreak? The Early Demographic and Geographic Patterns of the SARS‐CoV‐2 Epidemic in the Netherlands

Boterman

2020

Tijd voor Econ & Soc Geog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The global health crisis due to the pandemic of the SARS‐CoV‐2 is associated with processes of urbanisation and globalisation. Globally well‐connected areas with high population densities are hence expected to be disproportionately affected by COVID‐19. This paper investigates the role of population density within the Netherlands, comparing hospitalisation and mortality related to COVID‐19 across municipalities. The paper finds that infections, hospitalisation and mortality related to COVID‐19 are not clearly correlated with the population density or urbanity of the municipality, also when controlling for age and public health factors. The paper concludes that while the public debate stresses the elevated risk of infections in cities, due to transgressive behaviour, the evidence in this paper suggests that the geography of the epidemic in the Netherlands is more complex. It speculates that the variation in urbanisation in most of the country might just be too small to expect significant differences.

show abstract

Rethinking Urban Epidemiology: Natures, Networks and Materialities

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 50 publications

References 80 publications

Infectious Diseases as Socio‐Spatial Processes: The COVID‐19 Outbreak In Germany

Infectious Diseases as Socio‐Spatial Processes: The COVID‐19 Outbreak In Germany

On the relationships between COVID-19 and extended urbanization

Urban‐Rural Polarisation in Times of the Corona Outbreak? The Early Demographic and Geographic Patterns of the SARS‐CoV‐2 Epidemic in the Netherlands

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About