Coronavirus Pandemic공포가 끝났을때, 우리 인간들의 사회생활 방식이, Covid-19이 발생하기전인 2020년도 1월 이전으로 되돌아 갈수 있을까? 많은 전문가들이 이에 대한 추측을 하고 있지만, 한마디로 요약하면, "우리가 살아왔던 방식, 사회적 활동 그리고 세계가 지향하는 방향은 예전과는 판이하게 달라질것이다"라는 우울한 소식들뿐이다.
Pandemic이 발생하기전까지는, 생업에 종사하는 직장인들은 아침에 시간에 마추어, 직장으로 출근하고, 때로는 교통지옥에 시달리면서도 시간에 늦지 않을려고 비지땀을 흘리면서, 흔들리는 뻐스와 지하철에 몸을 의지하면서.... 종종 걸음으로 달렸었다.
컴퓨터의 발달로, 그렇치 않아도 젊은 Cyber Generation들은, 재택근무를 해온 분야도 일부있었으나, 이번 Pandemic으로 사회생활이 Lockdown 되면서, Cyber Generation은 집에서 근무하면서, 회사와 항상 연결된 일상업무를 처리해 왔었다.
One Bedroom에서 살았던 젊은 부부들은, 전에는 못느꼈던, 업무상의 비밀 공간이 마련안되, 각자의 방이 있는 더 넓은 공간을 찾아 이사하는 Couple들이 많이 늘었다고 한다. Downtown의 커다란 Office Building들은 그 존재의미가 많이 희석되여, 공실율도 높아지고 있다는 견해다.
지난 6개월 동안에 일상적으로 해왔던 사회생활이 완전 Lockdown되면서 많은 도전에 처하게되자, 수만개의 AI의 혁신이 이루어졌고, 정부들은 서로 보면서 협의할수있는 앱개발에서 부터 환자의 원격치료, 그리고 배움터에 가지않고 배우는 혁신적 방법 등등을 포함한 모든 업무가 신속하게 거의 기계에 의존하는 패턴으로 변화시켰다.
어쨋던 모든게 디지털 방식으로 급속히 변환 됐으며, 특히 AI의 챌린지 변화는 과히 괄목할정도 이상으로 혁신적이다. 프라이버시의 위험과 기묘하게 영향을 미치는 차별화를 포함한 도덕적 딜레마는 이미 현실화 되여 우리의 삶을 뒤흔들고 있다.
도심지역에서 더 많은 사람들이 전염되는것은 인구밀도가 높어서만은 아니다. 거주에 합당한 접근의 불평등, 에너지, 식수, 청결문제, 대중교통, 휴식공간, 건강진료 그리고 교육 등등이 모두에게 공평하게 접근이 안되기 때문인것도 부인못할 사실이다.
대도시들은 상상을 초월하는 변화를 보게 될터인데, 왜냐면 시민들은 이러한 불평등함을 해결해야할 과제로 생각지 않는다는 점이다. 우리가 사는 공간인 집과 살아가는 환경속에서 우리가 발견하는 현실에 따라 결정될 것이기 때문이다. 또 다른 획기적 변화는 우리 도시민들이 재택근무를 할수있다는 점을 발견 했다는 점이다. 우리는 우리가 살고있는 집이, 성공하기위해 최대로 활용될수있고, 이러한 변화가 모든이들에게 현실화 될수있는 기회와 도전할수있는 새로운 사고를 창작하는데, 최대의 공간이 될수있다는점을 찾게 될것이다.
Covid-19이 우리 신체와 때로는 생명까지도 공격할수 있지만, 사회적 거리두기와 멀리 떨어져 생활하는 풍조는 우리들 삶의 문화적 기본을 통채로 위협하고 있다는 점이 걱정된다. 앞으로 우리 모두의 삶을 위해 삶의 질을 향상 시키기위한 우리 사회의 더 낳은 연결 방법을 창조해야할 필요가 그어느때보다 더 절실하다고 생각한다.
나는 요즘의 날씨가 늦은 가을 또는 초겨울 답지 않게 포근해서, 여름철에 살아왔던 시골동네에서 아직까지 지내고 있다. 예년 같았으면, 벌써 대도시에 있는 내 삶의 본거지로 옮겼을텐데.... 그러면서도 한편으로는 이웃집들과의 접촉은 전처럼 많지가 않다. Pandemic의 위험때문에, 만난다 해도 집밖에서, Social Distancing을 유지한채 대화를 나누고.... 집안에 들어가서 편하게 앉아 살아가는 얘기를 한다는것은 역사속에서나 생각할수있는 변형된 삶을 살고있다.
주로 많이 접촉하면서, 친 형제자매 처럼 지내왔던, Barb 과Gene부부와도 전처럼 끈끈한 Fellowship를 Share할수 없다는게 가장 마음이 쓰리다. 이들 부부는 우리 부부보다 5살쯤 연장자 분들로 이제 막 80대를 넘어선분들이다. 이웃해 사는 서양친지들과 먹거리를 Share하는 경우는 매우 드문데, 우리는 스스럼 없이 우리의 전통음식을, 그들은 그들의 전통음식을 나누곤 했었는데..... 너무도 많이 아쉽다. 이제 날씨가 추워져 이곳에서의 생활을 접고 내 본거지로 돌아가게 되면, 춥고 눈쌓인 긴겨울 동안을 어쩌다 이멜 정도 주고 받으면서 살아가야 할 것이다. 물론 매년 겨울이면 해왔던, 겨울나들이 여행은 꿈도 꿀수없다는 것은 물론이다.
Coronavirus Pandemic이 너무도 많은 Impact를 생활속에 깊이 뿌리박게 해줬다는데, 겨울을 지내야할 본거지로 옮길날을 눈앞에 두고, 많이 맘적으로 신체적으로 깊이 느끼면서, 오늘도 하루를 보낼것이다. 그리고 이들 부부가 겨울을 무사히 보내고 내년에 다시 건강한 모습으로 재회할수 있게 되기를 기원할 뿐이다.
Covid-19 will likely have permanent effects on the way we work. But the way we live, socialise and move about the world will be different, too.
Tony Wheeler: Co-Founder, Lonely Planet
Will only the wealthy be able to travel?
When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, I keep repeating baseball player and philosopher Yogi Berra’s wise advice that “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
In the travel game, it’s tough even to understand what’s going on in the present. Some countries (Australia) won’t let people out, other countries (America) won’t let people in, even when they’re coming from a place with a better virus story. Or you can leave (the UK) and go somewhere else (the list changes daily) only to find (typically at 4 a.m.) all sorts of restrictions on your return.
None of this encourages travel, and it’s probably a safe bet that merely making the decision to head for the departure gate is going to be a fraught choice for some time to come. Quite apart from dealing with the bureaucracy and rules, I’m afraid that post-pandemic travel will be to a very different new world. Will we be welcomed? Will we be safe? And can we afford it? It will be a sad new world if travel becomes something only for the rich and gap-year travel becomes a rite of passage that ceases to exist.
Of course, a travel reassessment will give us the opportunity to tackle some of the industry’s inevitable drawbacks from a fresh perspective, but will we tackle overtourism and climate change, or just turn the power back on and hit restart?
Audrey Azoulay: Director-General, Unesco
How will AI shape our lives post-Covid?
Covid-19 is a test like no other. Never before have the lives of so many people around the world been affected at this scale or speed.
Over the past six months, thousands of AI innovations have sprung up in response to the challenges of life under lockdown. Governments are mobilising machine-learning in many ways, from contact-tracing apps to telemedicine and remote learning.
However, as the digital transformation accelerates exponentially, it is highlighting the challenges of AI. Ethical dilemmas are already a reality – including privacy risks and discriminatory bias.
It is up to us to decide what we want AI to look like: there is a legislative vacuum that needs to be filled now. Principles such as proportionality, inclusivity, human oversight and transparency can create a framework allowing us to anticipate these issues.
This is why Unesco is working to build consensus among 193 countries to lay the ethical foundations of AI. Building on these principles, countries will be able to develop national policies that ensure AI is designed, developed and deployed in compliance with fundamental human values.
As we face new, previously unimaginable challenges – like the pandemic – we must ensure that the tools we are developing work for us, and not against us.
Ezekiel Emanuel: Member, Biden-Harris Covid-19 Advisory Board and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania
What will we be craving in a post-pandemic world?
There are three clear legacies from the Covid-19 pandemic. They all derive from the unnatural and unpleasant circumstances imposed by the pandemic and the necessary public health responses.
First, we all want security. The pandemic has filled us with uncertainty and insecurity. The natural response is to want security. This means security in having an income, child care, family leave and other things necessary to care for your family during a pandemic. Every country will have to critically evaluate its social safety net and shore it up.
Second, we all want sociabilities. Human are social animals. The isolation imposed by Covid-19 is debilitating. We want to have opportunities to be with other people, share meals, share a drink in the pub, and share activities. We see this when restrictions are eased how people run for parties and group settings. Opportunities and venues for sociabilities will become huge post-Covid.
Third, travel will explode after the pandemic. People like (safe) novelty and changes of scenery. We have all been locked down with the monotony of the same rooms, same walking routine, inability to see new things. When it is safe to travel, people will go, go, go.
READ UNKNOWN QUESTIONS, PART ONE:
- Melinda Gates, Zoom CEO Eric S Yuan and more answer: How could the world of work change forever?
- Readers’ thoughts: The biggest unknowns in a post-pandemic work world
Giuseppe Sala: Mayor of Milan and Chair of the C40 Mayors Covid-19 Recovery Task Force
How can we protect city dwellers?
Cities have already fundamentally changed as a result of the Covid crisis. By delivering a green and just recovery from the pandemic, we can create the cities and the future we want. Working closely with local communities and businesses, mayors around the world have taken urgent action to protect the health and wellbeing of our citizens.
We’re helping create good green jobs, supporting key workers, investing in safe, resilient mass transit, rapidly expanding bike lanes and increasing the amount of green space in our cities. The experience of lockdown has made clear the need for well resourced, local amenities, which is why many people are looking at 15-minute cities, where all city residents are able to meet most of their needs within a short walk or bicycle ride from their homes.
Many of these innovations have been introduced incredibly quickly, demonstrating just how fast things can change. And they are here to stay. A return to ‘business as usual’ would not just be a monumental failure of imagination, but lock in the inequities laid bare by the pandemic and the inevitability of more devastating crises due to climate breakdown. That could be the most hopeful legacy of this most challenging year.
Ma Yansong: Architect and Founder of MAD Architects, Beijing
What’s the role of public spaces in cities?
Covid-19 at the very beginning is a public health issue, and then was further developed as a political concern. It challenged the nature of urban design, and pushed us to reconsider the use architecture and city space.
“Sharing” used to be one of the most important agenda in urban design and planning. In our past architectural practices, we used to make a lot of efforts on providing more open space to stimulate social interactions, which was considered as a positive and revolutionary action. However, the pandemic led to more discussions on isolation and social distancing, rather than sharing and co-living. Our efforts on providing better public space is questioned, and they might be considered not that important anymore.
However, in the long run, public space will still be the foundation for sharing our cities. We can’t imagine the city as a perfectly functioning hospital, because the city should surpass functionality and reflect our ideal for living. Interpersonal communication is still essential, but in the post-pandemic era might be greatly challenged.
Maimunah Mohd Sharif: Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlements Programme
How could cities help solve pandemic inequalities?
With an estimated 90% of all reported Covid-19 cases recorded in urban areas, cities have become the epicentre of the pandemic. At the same time, I believe that the solutions to the socio-economic and health challenges will be found in cities.
Cities are already changing because residents have transformed the way they live and work. Governments have woken up to the urgent need to address issues around inequalities.
It is not the density of cities that leads to people being infected, it is unequal access to adequate housing, energy, water, sanitation, transport, green public spaces, healthcare and education. Cities will see dramatic changes because citizens will not put up with these inequalities. What we will look for in a home and in our living environment will be determined by where we find ourselves. My hope is that people will use their new-found political muscle to ensure that there is an equitable spread of resources in cities. As we build back better, we will need an empathy revolution to ensure we do not leave behind the most vulnerable groups.
Another major change for many is the discovery that we can work from home. We will seek to retrofit our homes to be able to maximise the opportunities and tackle the challenges this transformation presents to us all.
Ultimately, cities are made up of people and the pandemic has shown that infinite growth has its limits. We either need to adapt, or go the way of the dinosaurs. I believe we can and will change. This is our opportunity to plan and regenerate environmentally sustainable cities which power the Secretary-General’s vision of building back better and greener.
Janette Sadik-Khan: Former Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation
What will transport look like?
Just a few months ago, the future of transportation was app-enabled mobility and visions of driverless cars. That version of the future crashed as the coronavirus advanced, and as car traffic vanished from city streets.
The transportation rescue hasn’t come in Ubers or robot cars. Cities on every continent responded by returning to old mobility and reclaiming roads for new uses. Milan, Paris and London are just some of the cities that have converted hundreds of miles of former driving and parking lanes into bus and bike lanes, and outdoor restaurant and café seating, allowing millions of residents to come outside safely simply by providing six feet of safe distance.
These steps, which would have been controversial before the pandemic, are today a first draft of what a new future of transportation could look like in post-Covid cities. Six feet of safe space on roads and sidewalks is all that cities need to transition from life shut indoors to a reopened, outside economy. There is six feet of space concealed within individual lanes on almost every street that can be readapted for safe, socially distant mobility, to create open-air commercial districts, and to make space for outdoor classrooms and civic activities like voting. The six-foot streets that the global economic recovery will be built upon are already within reach, and the outdoor, place-making activities that they make possible can make cities, safer, more resilient and more sustainable long after the pandemic. The six-foot city is already within reach on thousands of roads around the world, and wherever there are six feet, there is just enough space to hold us all together.
Michael Banissy: Professor of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London
How will we socialise?
Social interaction affects many areas of our lives impacting on the workplace, home life and many day-to-day activities. In many cases, one of the biggest predictors of mental and physical health is the quality of social relationships.
For me, the big questions linked to the pandemic therefore relate to how we can support social interaction as we move forward. With a variety of stages of lockdown there is no doubt that our opportunities for social interaction have reduced. Managing this reduction, whilst ensuring that we support social wellness across our communities is critical to how we live within, and recovery from, the pandemic. Will we be open to using technology and social robotics more? Will technology give us the same quality of social interactions that are important to social wellness, social innovation, and social productivity? Or will a craving for face-to-face interaction mean that we are less likely to engage with, and benefit from, these alternative forms of interaction?
There is no doubt that there will be many new social norms, but we can be sure that we’re likely to want to be social – to get together and talk about it all.
Rafat Ali: CEO and Founder, Skift
How much will the travel industry shrink?
The big question we at Skift are grappling with is this: is the future of travel smaller? As in, will be $3tn global travel sector become permanently smaller in the post-pandemic world? There are signs that the learnt behaviour of a world shut for months and maybe years to come will persist: the airline industry will most definitely be a smaller sector, with bankruptcies, layoffs and shutting down routes. Parts of business travel, the wanton criss-crossing of the global for a single meeting variety, for example, may be gone forever as we have become habituated to the good-enough world of Zoom, and lot more tech innovations to come that make video meetings lot better. The giant events industry that spawns a lot of travel may not return to its full physically glory of the past, as virtual events take hold and erode the economics of the till-now-very profitable sector.
As the international borders are shut in some form most likely till end of 2021, people are staying, driving and traveling locally, while short term rentals like Airbnb are doing better than hotels. There are some hopeful signs for future: domestic travel, in large part sustained by small locally owned businesses and usually ignored by the giant travel marketing machinery in favour of big ticket international trips, is getting a boost and if people begin to appreciate their local regions more in years to come, it would help with a smaller footprint on a planet that desperately needs it. Radical localism, as I call it.
Dani Simons: Head of Public Sector Partnerships, Waze
How will we get around?
Covid-19 has reshaped urban mobility. Instead of traveling to things, we’ve brought them to us, working from our living rooms, eating take-out at our tables. We’ve set new patterns that were unthinkable before. But most of us want to go out again. As that becomes possible, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how it’s done, to encourage new, more sustainable habits.
In some cities, traffic congestion has already crept back, exceeding pre-Covid levels. Transit budgets have been hit hard in big cities around the world, and service cuts loom. If we don’t act quickly, we could see more driving than pre-pandemic. Governments and businesses must consider how to optimise city infrastructure to keep traffic and pollution down, and ensure all residents – whether they can afford a car or not – can get around.
Data will play a vital role in helping us choose wise interventions. Some, already in progress, like expanding space for walking and cycling encourage a ‘new normal’ for our transportation network that will be better for our cities. Carpooling will also help. Once social distancing measures are loosened, cities and businesses can incentivise citizens and employees with longer trips to carpool to help reduce congestion and provide a flexible, affordable mode of transport.
Cities are made up of people and the pandemic has shown that infinite growth has its limits. We either need to adapt, or go the way of the dinosaurs - Maimunah Mohd Sharif
Sam Kling: Global Cities Fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
How will cities weather economic challenges?
Big, crowded cities already faced especially disruptive changes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now they face a set of economic challenges to match.
These challenges are unique in that they target many of the very same features that propelled big, global cities to new economic and cultural heights over the past decades. Law, finance and consulting – industries whose high-flying growth helped create the modern global city – have abandoned ritzy downtown offices for Zoom (surely temporary – but for how long?).
Bars, restaurants and retail, the essential amenities serving an affluent ‘creative class’, are withering. So is mass transit. Tourism declines have altered the face of meccas like Paris and London. In New York, word of an ultrawealthy exodus to the suburbs – tax dollars in tow – sparks even more budget panic.
Facing these challenges, cities will find pressure to do what they have in the past: target budget cuts to the vulnerable, direct resources to luring the wealthy to stay and prop up the existing system. But a pandemic which shows the costs of urban inequality also shows the dire need for a better system. Cities did not create these problems alone, and they won’t solve them alone either. But is there will to do it? If so, they might create a fairer, more resilient and more humane urban life.
Anjali Mahendra: Director of Research, World Resources Institute
Will cities emerge stronger after the virus?
Urban planning has been shaped by infectious disease outbreaks for centuries. Cities are at the frontlines of Covid-19 impact with the pandemic exposing existing fault lines related to lacking physical infrastructure and inequalities in access to public services. Large numbers of people do not have decent housing to self-isolate, basic water and sanitation for handwashing, access to adequate healthcare or transport options, as healthcare systems are overwhelmed and public transport systems are upended.
We are also seeing the fragility of jobs that underpin urban economies. Numerous low-wage formal sector jobs, as well as jobs in the informal and gig economy, lack a stable income or essential safety nets in the form of employment contracts and insurance. Almost 13 million people in the US are now unemployed, and 80% of India’s almost half-billion [person] workforce is in precarious informal jobs.
Cities have a major opportunity to build resilience to future such shocks in a way that is much more inclusive. Investing in public services and infrastructure, including health surveillance and testing systems, improved living conditions for low income people and supporting vulnerable workers, while enforcing guidelines to balance economic and public health concerns through collaboration between local and national governments – are some ways cities can emerge stronger from this crisis. Still, important questions remain around whether these measures will help address structural inequalities and whether the economic stimulus packages many countries are implementing will focus on making cities more inclusive, resilient and sustainable.
Amanda Levete: Principal, AL_A architecture, London
Can our community connections become more meaningful?
This pandemic has raised overwhelming existential issues – issues around race, inequality and the environment. But it has also revealed the breath-taking power of collective responsibility and shown that radical change is possible.
Adversity has reminded us that we all have a part to play in our interconnected world, to be more responsible, accountable and generous and to appreciate the importance of small things. We need to desire a more equitable society, and then design a more equitable model around that, to create places where we can live better together and better with nature. Places that promote a network of co-operation and where people can rediscover the art of living.
Cities are places of opportunity, and their success is the result of centuries of re-use and re-appropriation. Change is the one constant in cites, change is exciting and change is the engine of progress.
We need to get closer to nature in our cities, maximise not minimise space standards in our homes, re-purpose office buildings that people no longer want to work in and understand the importance of local.
Covid may attack our bodies, but distance and remoteness are threatening the very cultural foundation of our lives. More than ever we need to create better connectiveness in our communities to improve the quality of life for everyone.
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