Glocalism: Journal of Culture, Politics and Innovation

Public space is the background of our daily life and the framework of our professional research. The pandemic has precipitated the progressive disappearance of communities from the collective spaces of the city and contemporary society, which, in turn, is continuously changing in terms of both form and needs. This situation prompted us to open a scientific debate on the relationship between migration and urbanization in the new post-pandemic normal. A question regarding these emerging scenarios is whether and how urban areas and small municipalities are changing due to the impact of migrants’ settlement. How can we rethink public spaces in the digital era? How can we avoid forms of marginalization and the ghettoization of migrants?

This issue of Glocalism may include the following research outline:

1. a state-of-the-art review of the current debate on the local integration of migrants in each discipline, with specific regard to the impact of migrants’ settlement in urban areas and in smaller municipalities;
2. an assessment as to whether and how the pandemic will change urbanisation processes and the way in which the city is experienced (both in developed and developing countries);
3. an attempt to identify possible solutions in order to make cities and mobility more sustainable (as suggested by the Sustainable Development Goals) in the post-pandemic phase.

These problems may be addressed by jurists, sociologists, geographers and urbanists (departing from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective) by identifying and examining the requests for the new necessities of living in the public space whilst considering the fact that cultural hybridization is in a state of constant change. The purpose of this issue is to inspire new research with the intent of getting a sense of what the new post-pandemic normal looks like in an interconnected global society.

Deadline: 30 September 2021. This issue (2021, 3) is scheduled to appear at end-November 2021.