Re-evaluating the ‘good city’ from (post)pandemic Southeast Asia

Arising from a keynote presentation given at the third Sustainable Design for Liveable Cities (SUDLiC) conference on “Sustainable Cities for All” in 2021, this short commentary considers some implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for urban futures. In particular, we take responses to the pandemic in cities in Southeast Asia as a set of resources for re-evaluating prevailing conceptions of the “good city” – now, and into the future. While initial responses understandably focused on the management of public health and safety, it has been recognised that pandemic times more widely have provided an opportunity for planning priorities to be “reset” (Martinez and Short, 2021). What has that meant across a region as diverse as Southeast Asia in terms of both governmental capacity and levels of economic development? What roles have been played during the pandemic by experts/authorities on the one hand, and “ordinary” city inhabitants on the other? And what do varied performances of these roles over the past two years tell us about possibilities for the post-pandemic city? These are among the key questions that guide our deliberation of future urban prospects in and beyond (post-)pandemic Southeast Asia.