This event will take place in-person in the Graham Wallas Room, 5th floor, Old Building (OLD 5.25), LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, and online on Zoom.

Hosted by the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Co-Organized by:

Center for Information and Communication Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
ECREA – European Communication Research and Education Association (Media, Cities and Space Section)
Urban Communication Center, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Urban Communication Foundation

The CCRN 2022 Symposium focuses on the communicative configurations and transformations of the (post-)pandemic city. Cities across the world have experienced the pandemic differentially but acutely, with abrupt interruptions of their economic and cultural life and with physical isolation resetting conditions for urban communication. As cities across the world come out of and change because of the Covid-19 pandemic, physical isolation, collective trauma, and fears of consequent crises cast their shadows over urban life. While cities look ahead into diverse and wide-ranging challenges for their futures, urban communication is at the heart of many of those challenges.

The conditions of possibility and impossibility to connect raise a number of critical questions for the (post-)pandemic city, which we address at the Symposium:

How has urban communication changed in the context and conditions of crisis and what can we learn from the crisis period about the long-term patterns of connected and disconnected cities and their people?

Have social media replaced other forms of urban communication and connection and what are the benefits and limits of intensified digital connectivity for the social and cultural life of the city?

How has the pandemic shaped meanings of solidarity and belonging in cities bringing people closer together or pushing them further apart?

Has the urban landscape changed irreversibly, with downtowns and high streets further declining and younger generations abandoning the city for the suburbs?

Communicative Cities Research Network Symposium 2022