243
DOI: 10.17573/cepar.2021.1.11 1.01 Original scientific article
Urban Immunity Against the Pandemic
within the Framework of Public
Administration, City and Citizens1
Nilüfer Negiz
Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey
nilufernegiz@sdu.edu.tr
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4211-9689
Pınar Savaş-Yavuzçehre
Pamukkale University, Turkey
pyavuzcehre@pau.edu.tr
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7726-1119
Received: 16. 2. 2021
Accepted: 11. 5 2021
ABSTRACT
The circumstances arising in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic in-
dicate that outbreaks are inevitable and that new pandemics are quite
likely. Cities, just like people, need to protect themselves from pandem-
ics. Therefore, the existing urban and spatial practices should be recon-
sidered. The aim of the study is to explore, by observation and litera-
ture review, the cities’ readiness for possible pandemics or emergencies
within the framework of the concept of urban immunity. Based on the
elements necessary for the provision of immunity in humans, the require-
ments for urban immunity, the health of the infrastructure and super-
structure of the soil, the resources and sustainability of a city, its resil-
ience and growth control are discussed within the framework of urban
management. In addition, the study identifies three indispensable actors
for urban immunity: i) central governments, ii) local governments, and iii)
citizens. Immunized cities can be defined as cities with healthy infrastruc-
ture and superstructure factors of urban soil aiming at economic and eco-
logical sustainability that have achieved a planned and controlled growth
momentum, governed by public policies created with the understanding
of local welfare and democracy in cooperation with local governments,
citizens, and the central government. The study is purely theoretical and
focuses on universal urban immunity rather than on any country example,
which constitutes the strength of the study.
1 This article is a result of the project “The City During The Pandemic Process: A Study in Terms
of Expectation-Capacity in Providing “Urban Immunity (Lakes Region Case)”, No. 126K640,
supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.
Negiz, N., Savaş-Yavuzçehre, P. (2021). Urban Immunity Against the Pandemic within
the Framework of Public Administration, City and Citizens.
Central European Public Administration Review, 19(1), pp. 243–260
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Nilüfer Negiz, Pınar Savaş-Yavuzçehre
Keywords: urban immunity, immunized city, pandemic, Covid-19, local government,
central government
JEL: R14, R28, R38, R52, Q58
1 Introduction
Throughout the last five centuries, humanity has established close ties be-
tween continents and cities. While these ties stimulate trade, relationships
have been established and the groundwork has been laid for the spread of
contagion. If all countries do not invest enough to prevent future pandem-
ics, it is inevitable that the drawbacks will become too severe. This situation
would cause less innovation in the world, less growth and much more suffer-
ing for the disadvantaged groups. Cities will be much less attractive to people
if the threat of a possible future pandemic (s) is to be a permanent part of our
existence (Glaeser, 2020). The cities need to be immune and be prepared like
humans to be ready for future pandemics.
Epidemics are one of biological disasters. It is known that new infectious
agents or controlled ones may cause outbreaks again due to many factors
such as increasing anti-microbial resistance, ecological changes, chronic dis-
eases, increasing poverty, malnutrition and weakening of the immune system
due to infections such as HIV, climate change, rapid population movements,
accessibility, coverage, and acceptability of basic health services (Şimşek,
2020, p.104). This situation forces countries to be prepared and resilient
against these disasters. The ways to become immunized cities and countries
by ensuring resilience and health should be discussed.
This research is based on the idea that the Covid-19 Pandemic chooses urban
areas, and this study aimed to reveal how cities can become immune with the
“Urban Immunity”, “Immunized Cities” concepts both theoretically in the con-
text of the physical and functional characteristics of the city and in the con-
text of the assessments of the actors and citizens who manage these areas
in order for the cities to be more prepared in the processes such as possible
epidemic (s) and pandemic (s) that are experienced and may be experienced.
In determining the health status of individuals living in a city, the physical,
social, cultural, and economic conditions of the place they live are also im-
portant besides biological factors. For this reason, the health of the city is
interdependent in terms of those living in the city, and the health of the city
dweller in terms of the future of the city. In this context, by looking at the
subject in terms of the city and the pandemic, the fundamental problematic
of the pandemic “immunity” will be defined through the immunity of cities
and discussed with its elements.
2 Urban Immunity
Immunity is defined as “resistance to disease, especially to infectious dis-
eases”. “The immune system is a collection of molecules-cells and tissues that
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Urban Immunity Against Pandemic within the Framework of Public Administration, City & Citizens
provide resistance to infections. The coordinated reaction of this system against
foreign molecules, such as microorganisms, is defined as the immune response.”
(Ankara Universitesi, 2020). Covid-19, a “new type” alien to human immunity,
is a virus with a high level of destruction. The course of the disease, which
results in death especially in individuals with weak immunity, has revealed the
importance of the immune system of people. The main long-term struggle
with the problem lies in reviewing our life and settlement forms and habits,
and creating more resistant, safe, and “immune” living spaces and service pro-
cesses against such viruses.
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the need for residential areas where
people live to be immune to viral problems. There are opinions that accept cit-
ies as organisms that are born and develop and disappear over time, just like
living beings. Among the urbanization theories, the Chicago School was in-
spired by the science of ecology and Darwin, while treating the city as a living
organism and trying to define it (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2015; Serter, 2013, p.74). In
this sense, the healthy functioning of all the structures that make up the city
(this organism) is important for the development of the city (organism) and its
survival. The basic element of the city is human. People living in healthy envi-
ronments are related to the city, and the shaping of the city in a healthy struc-
ture is related to human health and resistant urban life with “high immunity”.
Cities and their health are on the agenda of the World Health Organization
(WHO). “Healthy Cities Project” was developed in 1987. Almost every country
of Europe and 53 countries from all over the world participated in this project.
The healthy city is a city that constantly creates and develops these physi-
cal and social environments and expands community resources that enable
people to mutually support each other in fulfilling all the functions of life and
developing their maximum potential. The aim of a healthy city is to create a
health-supportive environment, to achieve a good quality of life, to provide
basic sanitation and hygiene needs and to provide access to health services
(WHO, 2020a). A healthy and active city is a city that constantly creates and
develops opportunities in settled and social settings and expands community
resources to ensure that all its citizens are physically active in their daily life
(Belli, 2019, p.1938). In this study, urban immunity is defined by taking inspi-
ration from the WHO’s definition of a healthy city. Health is not just about
the absence of a disease. It should also be carried out in cities in the context
of general well-being, disease prevention-based service provision and living
environment. Based on the relationship between human, healt and immu-
nity; urban immunity can be defined as the resistance of cities to diseases. If the
basic components of immunity for humans are the community of cells and
tissues, then the actors of its immunity for cities are the main functions of
the city and their management system. The predictions that the epidemic will
change the planning and design, energy use, mobility models, housing pref-
erences, green areas, and transportation systems in cities around the world
(Üzümlüoğlu, 2020) reveal the importance of the sub-themes mentioned for
the immunized city.
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Each author trying to define urban immunity with different factors. Chen and
Hsu (2015, pp. 652-661) discuss urban immunity in terms of the response of
the physical urban environment to external antigens. They list these antigens
as follows: i) disasters caused by human or nature, ii) inappropriate urban plan/
design, iii) new human activities created by new technology. They have under-
taken the scrutiny of the urban landscape in different scales with a morpho-
logical approach. As a result of research: If a balanced urban system disrupted
by a significant event, the physical urban form would be impacted directly,
and thus will transform to response to the change. After a series of transfor-
mation, the urban system can be steadied again. They regard immunity-based
procedure, which can help an urban system evolve and therefore survive.
Bristow and Mohareb (2020, pp. 300-312)’s article examining the relationship
between urban immunity system and climate change, identifying those attrib-
utes of the system that are expected to be of increasing importance under cli-
mate change. When discussing urban immunity against climate change, they
question three factors for urban immunity. These are i) resistance of the built
environment, ii) resistance to the cascade effects of failure, iii) recoverability.
Dursun (2020), who made the proposition of urbanities that strengthen im-
munity with the approach of “cities are as strong as their individuals” based on
the perspective of the citizens, set out from the necessity of constructing the
immune system within the framework of stress management and active life
(in terms of making exercise) apart from eating habits. Dursun has proposed
an urban model, which has a positive effect on stress management and un-
wittingly exercising, both to strengthen the immune system of the urbanities
and to facilitate the fight against the epidemic. The ideal starting point for
this urban life form is at the neighborhood level and a walkable neighborhood
design is offered. Neighborhoods are ideal areas for a healthy life with their
parks, playgrounds, bicycle paths and all these functions designed for exer-
cise. Healthier urban environments will be obtained when more space is allo-
cated for uses such as pedestrian and bicycle paths and green areas. Another
important urban regulation move is density balancing. For this purpose, solu-
tions such as decentralizing the city and reducing the density are suggested.
2.1 Elements of an immunized city
The elements of immunity envisaged for human beings were considered
within the context of the city, and the requirements that would make the city
healthy and immune were adapted to the city. Each of the elements involved
in human immunity is fictionalized for the city and arranged in a relational con-
text. For the city, the organs of the body are matched to the upper and lower
structure actors of the settlement. The sustainability of the body is matched to
the sustainability of the city. Body resistance is matched to the elements that
will make the city resilient. The nutrition of the body is matched to the city’s
resources. External factors that can harm the body are matched to the city’s
environment and growth. Finally, the self-management of the person (will),
which will coordinate all these components, is matched to the management of
the city and it is aimed to identify the sub-elements of urban immunity.
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2.1.1 Health of the lower and upper structure of the soil
The infrastructure of the city includes steps directly related to the planning of
the city. Good planning is a major element of the city’s health. In addition to
the opening of a settlement for housing, it is an important urban component
that is necessary for the healthy development and control of the housing af-
ter the settlement (Erdin, 2011, p.2). While aesthetics and functionality were
established in harmony with nature, this understanding deteriorated after
the industrial revolution. While the problems such as crowding, epidemics, air
pollution and congestion caused by the increase in population and density in
the industrialized western cities at the end of the 1800’s caused misery in the
cities, infrastructure investments also came to the fore in overcoming these
problems. A healthy infrastructure has started to be emphasized with systems
such as urban transportation, directing the settlement out of the center, elec-
tricity, sewerage, clean water and storing rainwater. The effort to overcome
the negative effects of the industrial revolution in cities has formed the scien-
tific theoretical basis of urban planning. Especially Ebenezer Howard’s (1902)
“Garden City” and Daniel Burnham’s (Burgess, 1997) “City Beautiful” (move-
ments appeared in these theories as the 19th century’s solution proposals as
urban life being intertwined with nature and the implementation of a series
of physical arrangement tools.
Environmental problems have brought applications in harmony with nature
in the theme of infrastructure in cities. Green infrastructure is a design that
stands out in this sense. Green infrastructure is “a developing planning and
design concept based on the idea of establishing a link between green areas
and built infrastructure, which is especially based on hydrological networks,
whose number is decreasing, but important in terms of fulfilling ecological
functions” (Benedict and McMahon, 2006). The concept of urban green in-
frastructure expresses the whole of multi-functional natural, semi-natural
and artificial ecological systems inside and outside the city (Yılmaz and Şahin,
2020, p. 328). Considering the ecological crises as well as the correct planning
in the infrastructure elements of the city, we should act with a “green field”
approach that is compatible with nature rather than aesthetics or profit.
Another important element in the city is the areas located on the ground;
these areas are residences, public spaces, avenues, streets, squares, and
green fields. The famous saying “Urban air frees people – Stadt luft macht frei”
emphasizes the importance of cities in social life. The effects of cities on peo-
ple’s social life are extremely important. Streets, squares, parks, open spac-
es are areas of reconciliation where city dwellers can gather, meet, express
themselves individually and together, and create urban culture. Urban spaces
and the meanings attributed to these spaces are among the most important
elements of communication between society and individuals.
These areas, which we define as the functions of the city on the ground and
in the urban growth system, are as follows: central business and commercial
zone, transition zone with trade and light industry establishments, low-quality
housing spaces, high-quality housing spaces, suburbs, heavy industrial areas,
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and green areas (Keleş, 2016, p.126). In this context, the design of residential
areas, public spaces and spaces is important. As the cities grow, the need for
more housing and more residential areas arises with the crowding. With the
increasing population, the most important problem area is the urban density
and the rise of housing supply. Residential areas and high-rise buildings that
are far from green between building blocks should be redesigned for our
near future, which requires a distant life. The need to stay away from the in-
door spaces that come together obliges outdoor spaces to stand out in urban
design. For this reason, reconsidering social areas and residential areas, which
are on the ground as well as infrastructure and offered to the use of citizens,
for a healthy and immunized city should be included in plans.
2.1.2 Resources of the city and sustainability of the city
The local reflection of the concept of economy, which refers to activities
carried out to meet human needs, is “local economy” and operates in coop-
eration between socio-economic actors such as labor and employer organiza-
tions and local governments (Zengin et al., 2014, p.108). Development, which
we can call as the developments in the general economic structure of the
country, is expressed as national development. Subcomponents of national
development are regional and local development. Local development is an
understanding that offers the local area / region / district the opportunity to
shape its own economic future. Planning and supporting the local economy,
considering the needs and potential of the region, is possible with strong na-
tional economy and strategies. The relationship between the economy and
development cycle in the course from micro scale to macro scale has been
constructed with a bond that supports and nurtures each other. The first step
will also be taken to ensure total development when the existing resources
and potentials of the local population turn into good economic indicators (in-
come, employment, etc.). In the steps to be taken for the development move,
the extent to which the local resources are used sustainably is the main prob-
lem for the future of the city, the health and immunity of the city.
Cities are areas that contain natural structures and systems and where natural
structures interact with each other. The natural resources of cities and their
potential to generate income and employment by transferring them to the
economy damage the ecosystem of the city. The mines and marble quarries,
gold exploration studies, thermal power plants are the first applications that
come to mind in this sense especially in developing countries.
The concept of “sustainable urban development”, as it is most mentioned in
the sustainability and urbanization literature, was first defined in 1996 in the
final declaration of the United Nations Istanbul Habitat II Summit. Sustainable
human settlements are defined as follows: “As we enter the twenty-first centu-
ry, we encourage a positive vision for sustainable human settlements, a sense of
hope for our common future, and a fully beneficial and engaging challenge where
everyone can live in a safe home that promises a decent life full of dignity, health,
safety, happiness and hope” (Birleşmiş Milletler, 1996). The aim of sustainable
urban development has emerged and spawned numerous urban settlement
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theories, including the “Healthy City”, “Sustainable City”, “Low-Carbon City”,
“Transit-Oriented City”, “Compact City”, “Smart City”, “Green City”, and “Liva-
ble City”. The concept of the “Healthy City” is used in the field of public sanita-
tion and city design. A Healthy City will bring many benefits, such as “a clean,
safe physical environment of high quality”, “the meeting of basic needs for all
the city’s people”, and “an ecosystem that is stable now and sustainable in the
long term” (Tang and Lee, 2016, p. 3).
Rapid growth threatens the sustainability of cities and the quality of urban life.
Mass urbanization leads to social instability, undermining the capacity of cities to
be environmentally sustainable and economically successful. A new sustainabil-
ity model is needed, with more incentives to save energy, reduce consumption
and protect the environment. The cities of the future should be socially differ-
ent environments where economic and social activities overlap, and communi-
ties are concentrated around neighborhoods. The cities of the future should be
developed or adapted to ensure that their citizens are socio-economically crea-
tive and productive (Riffat et al., 2016, p.1; Nijkamp and Perrels, 1994, p. 28).
2.1.3 Urban resilience and strengthening of the city
Urban immunity can be attributed to the fact that the city is resilient in the
face of big global issues that it is not used to. The concept of “urban resil-
ience” is a common concept used in the implementation of global policies in-
cluding Agenda 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals), Paris Agreement and
New Urban Agenda as a response to major global issues such as urbanization,
development, climate change and sustainability. Urban resilience is ‘the ca-
pacity of urban systems, communities, individuals, organisations and businesses
to recover maintain their function and thrive in the aftermath of a shock or a
stress, regardless its impact, frequency or magnitude’ (Resilient Europe, 2016,
p. 6). The Covid-19 pandemic caught all the countries of the world off guard
as a global issue in this sense. Countries that have taken early and drastic
measures in this process, which Wuhan is one of them, have worked more
effectively to combat the epidemic. The focus of urban resilience is manag-
ing disaster risk and the effects of climate change. Economic crises, pandem-
ics and uncontrolled urbanization have shown how a city can affect its ability
to sustain growth and provide services to its citizens and have increased the
need for Resilient Cities. In the face of the challenges faced by cities with ur-
ban resistance, it is aimed to maintain the old state of cities as well as to adapt
and change to the new situation.
For humans, resilience refers to support and lifestyle, such as regular sleep,
good nutrition, regular exercise, and vaccination, while for the city, resilience
refers to strengthening its existing functions and environmental factors ho-
listically. With this sense, the capacity to adapt to new formations should be
considered both in new physical formations for the city and in the sense of
improving existing ones.
Strengthening the city is possible by renewing the functions of the city, keep-
ing them healthy and supporting them. The existence of building groups or
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spaces that have deteriorated or lost their function in the urban living space
can cause urban diseases and harm the citizens. For this reason, just as healthy
nutrition and vitamin or drug support are required to strengthen the body, it
is necessary to improve the health and strengthen the immunity of places or
environments that become dysfunctional at regular intervals for cities.
2.1.4 Control of growth
Rapid urbanization and urban sprawl are a worldwide phenomenon Such a
growth brings along many problems such as congestion in cities, increase in
the use of fossil fuels, an understanding of consumption dependent on non-
renewable resources, unconscious use of resources, air pollution, water pollu-
tion, soil pollution, noise pollution and above all, climatic anomalies. Natural-
ly, ecosystems in and around urban settlements are directly affected by this
growth. The process of urbanization and growth of cities that started after
the industrial revolution in the world continues.
Until the early 1980s, a single-center city model was used to explain the spa-
tial structure of cities. This model explains a growth approach that explains
that all social and economic activities are concentrated in the “central busi-
ness area”, which is the only focus area, and that most residential areas are
located in the city periphery. After the 1980s, new growth areas were formed
in cities because of the spread of functions based on economic activity and
skilled labor due to the changes in the spatial structure of metropolitan cities,
the differentiation in lifestyles and the increasing number of immigrants (Sat
et al., 2017, pp. 99–100). Thus, multi-centered cities, where several new cent-
ers were formed on the line extending from a single center to the periphery
of the city, began to take shape as a new city form. At this point, 21st century
cities are in the form of multicentric cities that show the characteristics of de-
centralization of economic activities, increasing mobility, mutual commuting,
and spatial fragmentation of complex activities (Sat et al., 2017, pp. 99–101).
Urban growth must be controlled through development plans appropriate
for the city’s immunity. This requires reflection on urban growth management
models. It is stated that the growth of the city is directed without adversely
affecting the welfare of the individual and society by providing sustainable
and efficient land use, sufficient green areas per person, effective access and
transportation network, and sufficient equipment area (Seydanlıoğlu and
Turgut, 2017, p. 437). In addition to determining the growth locations and
quantities of the city and preparing appropriate urban development plans in
the future, the control of growth is also beneficial in environmental and socio-
economic terms. Therefore, forecasting urban growth reveals the necessity
of preparing urban growth management plans for all cities.
2.1.5 Administration of the city
While local governments are complementary to the central administration in
unitary structed states; they have political and financial autonomy in states
with a federative nature. The fact that the city is governed by elected local
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representatives ensures the functioning of democracy at the city level. The
relationship between central administration and city administration can be
examined as administrative, financial, and political relations. When regulating
central-local relations, the authority of administrative guardianship must be
limited to legal supervision in central governments. It is expected that local
governments, as the closest service units to the citizen, will better identify
and present the needs of the city.
The design of the urban area and the activation of all the sub-factors men-
tioned are based on the city administration in terms of ensuring urban im-
munity. Municipalities are the stakeholders of the local development of the
city for employment and economic prosperity, the actor of the urban design
with the responsibilities of the plan and implementation of the infrastructure
and superstructure of the city, the stakeholder of the resilient city with the
responsibility to renew the old and deteriorated areas and the spatial coordi-
nators of this growth in the growth of the city. With all these responsibilities,
local governments play an important role in viral epidemics such as Covid-19,
as the closest management units to the city dwellers.
Special approaches are needed as each city has certain sustainability charac-
teristics resulting from its geographical location as well as its political, social,
physical, economic, and cultural conditions (Jones, 2010, p. 12). For this rea-
son, the point that should not be forgotten when discussing the Covid pan-
demic over health is the fact that Covid chose cities. With this reality, city and
urban policies should be re-evaluated in this process.
3 Indispensable Actors for Providing Urban Immunity
Urban immunity was defined in this study to adapt immunity, which is the ba-
sic concept of health science, to the city. A correct definition and discussion
from the human-health relationship to the city-health relationship has been
attempted to be made through the concept of “immunity”. Based on what
happened during the pandemic process, the issue has been addressed in the
national framework within the following actors: i) central government, ii) lo-
cal governments and iii) citizens.
3.1 Central government
Public policy is everything the state intends to do or chooses not to do (Dye,
1998, p. 3). All transactions and activities carried out by public institutions
should be carried out within the scope of a certain public policy. Therefore,
the extraordinary periods and crises caused by epidemics also lead states to
question their capacities and public policy making processes again. As a result
of the interrogations, it is seen that strong state capacity is the decisive factor
in the success of crisis management. In order to talk about strong state ca-
pacity, many elements such as reliable political leadership, health, economy,
supply chain, education, scientific research, transportation, effective man-
agement, digitalization, a well-functioning bureaucracy, properly and reliably
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executed communication skills should be carried out successfully (Yıldız and
Uzun, 2020). The government leaders need to develop a common under-
standing of the crisis through effective communication during crisis process.
States should design and implement both short (first phase) and medium and
long term (second phase) public policies against earthquakes and epidemics.
With reactive crisis management, it is aimed to solve the daily problems caused
by the crisis in the short term before they grow. With proactive measures, ef-
forts are made to eliminate the situation that caused the crisis in the medium
and long term and to prevent it from happening again. With the Covid-19
pandemic, which is a global crisis, many countries had to implement reactive
public policies in order to slow the spread of the disease, to gain time to im-
prove health sector capacity, to reduce the number of deaths, to increase the
morale of the society in the fight against the epidemic, and not to disrupt the
functioning of the economy and the provision of basic public services (Yıldız
and Uzun, 2020, p.10). In the proactive approach stage, it is necessary to get
to the root of the epidemic problem. As of February 2021, the second stage
has not yet been passed. The timing, scope and impact of the measures taken
by each country in the face of global situations differ from each other.
WHO encourages all countries to establish national epidemic prevention stra-
tegic plans and establish pandemic control committees. WHO has listed first
emergency preparedness policies in combating the epidemic to reduce the
risk and be prepared against such extraordinary periods that countries may
encounter (WHO, 2018a, 2018b, 2020a, 2020b). Coordination and control of
healthcare management is important after evaluating the risk and severity
during the epidemic process. In this process, the central government should
plan the inter-agency communication processes well and execute them ef-
fectively. There are the following stages in combating the epidemic: control-
ling the spread of the disease, ensuring sustainability in other public services,
informing the public and finally post-epidemic assessment.
It is extremely important to guide the community and health workers to man-
age such an epidemic correctly on a global scale. In epidemics, societies are in
a state of panic and they want to get information as quickly as possible. There-
fore, it is important to provide reliable sources of information. In addition,
proper management of health workers and knowledge of the basic principles
of infection control will reduce the burden of both infection control teams
and infectious disease doctors (Kutlu, 2020, p. 331). The central government
should regularly and transparently share all data from the center to protect
the public from information pollution during times of emergency. Communi-
cation must be carried out effectively to promote public understanding, trust,
and compliance with the measures.
3.2 Local governments
Cities and urban services are one of the most important elements in ensuring
urban immunity. Cities are the application areas of public policies. Cities are
undoubtedly the most important actors of the locality with their legal person-
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ality and partial autonomy, in cooperation with the central government. Af-
ter the public policies determined by the central administration gain identity
through laws, they show a flow from the center to the local within the admin-
istrative system. The importance of public policies in the city during the pan-
demic period is based on the close relationship between public policies and
people’s behavior. The pandemic has required policy implementations that
include fast, sharp, and tough decisions in the context of public policy. When
the relationship between public health and land use is well coordinated, the
suggestion can be put forward that pandemics can be better prepared (Özü-
duru, 2020, p. 12).
City plans are important for an immunized city. Problems that appear in the
context of both spatial and urban life in which cities are located today can
be associated with errors arising from the planning of the city’s future. For
the services carried out in cities to be carried out effectively and efficiently,
cities are the subject of planning activities taking into account various fac-
tors such as economic, social, cultural, environmental and health. In the past,
cities where fewer people lived in terms of population were settlements es-
tablished to meet their basic needs such as protection and shelter. Today,
cities have turned into social spaces where people live densely and where eco-
nomic, political, cultural, and social needs are met, beyond just being physical
structures that meet the need for shelter and security. Therefore, planning
action for cities today appears as a complex and difficult process (Keleş, 2016,
p.110). While physical, social, and economic factors were an important fac-
tor in the planning of a city for urban planners in the beginning, the creation
of healthy cities has become an important agenda item in the last century,
especially in the face of increasing environmental and ecological problems in
urban space (Kenzer, 1999, p. 202).
The most effective activities in the pandemic process are conducted by local
administrations as the closest service units to the citizen. Based on this, within
the framework of the “Health in All Policies” approach of WHO (2020b), local
governments, primarily responsible for cities, should plan their service pro-
cesses with this understanding. In some countries, including Italy, because of
the spread of the virus from one province to another, it was decided to give
health, police, and emergency services to local governments.
For the pandemic that requires both short- and long-term policy responses,
governments and development partners need to invest in strengthening local
governments. (Rajadhyaksa, 2020). While municipalities performed routine
services with their current budgets, more frequent cleaning and disinfection
works and social assistance expenditures increased significantly during the
pandemic period. In this process, there was a need to support municipalities
in a financial sense.
In order to ensure urban immunity, i) local governments need to eliminate
institutional overlaps, ii) local governments should encourage emergency
preparedness, iii) local governments should develop cross-coordination and
communication platforms and enhance integration to rapidly deploy citizens
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Nilüfer Negiz, Pınar Savaş-Yavuzçehre
and resources where they are needed most; iv) experience in the SARS and
Ebola outbreaks has shown that public actions lessened the impact of the
crisis. Therefore, local governments should inform citizens, especially strong
reliable people from among the population, such as clergymen, about this
struggle and empower citizens v) local governments must have permanent
resilience, a regular system, practices, and resource flow established in good
times to work effectively in times of crisis (Rajadhyaksa, 2020). According to
Sennet (2020), the pandemic is the time to fear the opportunity it offers for
the ruling powers, to reject the panic theater staged in the media, to find
ways to overcome the widening gap between a safe middle class and the
emerging working class, and to explore forms of diversity. Local authorities
should be able to use technology to connect the green city with the healthy
city and validate the power of the community in the city.
Local governments need to develop preventive health services aimed at mak-
ing people immune and resistant to diseases to create immunized cities. In-
vestments should be made in infrastructure, education, awareness activities
and public health. Alternative service models should be developed for pos-
sible crisis periods by prioritizing the duties and responsibilities of the institu-
tion included in the municipal laws. For instance, alternative transportation
options should be created to be used in times of crisis against situations such
as road infrastructure, bridges, and viaducts so that transportation services
are not interrupted. To address the possible climate crisis in the coming years,
investments should be made in environmentally friendly transportation mod-
els, pedestrian and bicycle priority roads should be designed.
During the pandemic period, the municipalities intensely carried out precau-
tion and hygiene activities. Within the framework of becoming an immune city,
there is a serious need for technology-facility investments especially in the
collection, separation, disposal, and recovery of wastes. For the collection of
medical waste such as masks and gloves, whose use is increasing with the pan-
demic, different garbage bins should be placed in every point of the city, and
medical waste sterilization facilities should be established for their disposal.
In times of crisis, communication and power outage radios, mobile genera-
tors, mobile hospitals, and tents should be kept. Measures for other urban
services (such as security) should be taken in coordination with other public
actors in the province. In preparation for disasters, the public should be in-
formed, and awareness should be raised about disasters and public health.
Basic first aid courses can be an example of this. Municipalities can also estab-
lish call centers to provide psychological counseling.
In the face of the possibility of repeat epidemics, the ability and economic
power of city managers and cities to adapt to the situation should be in-
creased. In the pandemic process, it is vital to take measures to reduce the ef-
fects of the epidemic and to ensure the effective use of resources. For exam-
ple, it is important to be able to easily create temporary housing and health
centers and to have areas and spaces to build them.
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Urban Immunity Against Pandemic within the Framework of Public Administration, City & Citizens
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the virus is spreading faster in large
and well-connected cities if rapid and effective health measures are not taken.
The city of New York in the USA and the city of Wuhan in China are examples
of this with their crowded population (Constable, 2020). Taking strength from
both technology and organizational structure, local governments should cre-
ate a combination of healthy, resilient, smart, calm urban examples and even
more prepared immune urban elements in their cities.
3.3 Citizens
The citizens, who are the main owners of the city partly directly, partly through
elected organizations (local governments), form another pillar of the immu-
nized city. Public policies established by the central government involving lo-
cal citizens and urban services provided by local governments are entirely for
citizens. Every citizen deserves a quality life. The expectations of each person
living in the city from a quality life and the issues that are considered rights in
this direction were determined by the European Urban Rights Charter at the
European Conference of Local and Regional Governments. This charter is a
recommendation for member countries. Urban rights included in the charter
are rules that reflect the ideal conditions to be achieved. It cannot be said that
all urban dwellers in many countries of the world, including the industrialized
and wealthy countries, benefit from most of these rights adequately.
There is no agreed international text on what Urban rights are. The European
Urban Charter, adopted by the European Commission in 1992, is considered
as a starting point in this regard (Tekeli, 2011, p. 186). According to the Eu-
ropean Urban Charter, the ideal city is defined as follows: “The ideal city is
a place of residence that protects the rights of the city dwellers, offers the
people a good life style by providing the best living conditions, and accom-
modates many sectors and activities (traffic, life, work, recreation needs) in
harmony taking its value from those who live, visit, work and trade in this city,
and meet their entertainment, culture and knowledge and education needs
in this city ”. It is primarily the duty of local administrations and the central
government to ensure the urban rights of every segment of society. Strong
and autonomous local governments that are aware of the responsibility of
delivering the quality service that all people deserve are required for the pro-
tection and good functioning of the rights of the city in the urban system.
Urban rights are also important in terms of being a healthy and resilient city.
Even if the city where a society is made up of people who do not have the rights
specified in the Urban Condition has all the other components, the quality of
being resistant or healthy is open to discussion. For cities to become immune
to possible pandemics or disasters, human-oriented, human-glorifying urban
models should be established, as well as smart cities that glorify technology,
the network. In the face of threats such as the Fair City, which emphasizes
social inequalities, the focus of the struggling city should also be on people.
According to Lefebvre (2018, pp. 122–123), individuals with business lines
such as architects, economists, sociologists do not have the power to create
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Nilüfer Negiz, Pınar Savaş-Yavuzçehre
very meaningful, multi-sensory, transparent relations with their environment
and themselves in the provision of urban rights. Only social life itself has this
power. From this point of view, social life is important for the immunized city.
The problem concerns not only individuals but also the inability to control
the capitalist order. However, the experienced disasters, crisis periods and
pandemics have shown that the current urban situation is problematic for in-
dividuals. The concept that brings the citizens and urban space closer is the
urban consciousness defined at the intersection point of urbanization, urban-
ity, and urban culture. Urbanity awareness means that the people living in the
city know that they are a part of the city they live in and are aware of their
responsibilities towards the city. Urbanity awareness is very important for the
city to gain resistance or immunity. So much so that the citizen must fulfill his
debts to the city as well as demand the rights of the urbanite. City dwellers
should embrace the city and feel belonging to the city, participate in the deci-
sions made and take part in the project development phase. To fulfill these,
local administrations can organize activities, seminars, and trainings in coor-
dination with non-governmental organizations and educational institutions in
order to raise awareness of the public. By using social media effectively, local
governments should inform the public of the projects they are pursuing and
ensure they are involved in the process. Cultural policies and socio-cultural ac-
tivities created considering the traditional and cultural characteristics of the
city and the cultural character of the population increase the citizen’s sense
of belonging to the city. Awareness of urbanism or what needs to be done in
extraordinary situations should be taught in the family and educational insti-
tutions starting from childhood.
4 Conclusion
Cities that have undergone changes and transformations under the influence
of different variables for centuries are now undergoing extensive changes
due to epidemics. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a global crisis (s) in
health, society, economy and many more areas. The prerequisite for the exist-
ence of cities today depends on their readiness and resilience in the face of
future shocks. In this sense, it is important that cities are healthy, resistant,
and immune. To ensure all these elements, all stakeholders, primarily public
institutions, central administration and local governments, citizens, non-gov-
ernmental organizations, and private sector, should work for the future of
the globe, the future of the cities and the future of humanity.
The most important problem of city administrations in ensuring and main-
taining urban immunity is urban growth. As emphasized in the urban-human
immunity fiction, while the pests in the physical environment (virus, bacteria,
etc.) that will harm the immune system of the people and enter the system
from the outside, the biggest damage for the city is uncontrolled growth
above what it should be. The density of cities is also the cause of many urban
diseases. To change the existing urban density and settlement perception, it
is necessary to focus on practices such as turning to horizontal architecture
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Urban Immunity Against Pandemic within the Framework of Public Administration, City & Citizens
and increasing green spaces and public open spaces. Therefore, central, and
local administrations should immediately put this issue on their agenda for
the growth of cities and the solution of the problems experienced in the con-
trol and management of this growth.
In the face of extraordinary periods or disasters such as a pandemic, the strat-
egies to be followed by the central administration before, during and after it,
the institutions in charge, the resources to be provided, and the implementa-
tion regulation should be determined in detail. An interdisciplinary and inte-
grated approach to the situation must be followed to make countries and
cities immunized at national or urban level.
In this process, local governments should acquire qualifications that are par-
ticipatory, embracing all segments of the society, democratic in decision mak-
ing, using technology well, being a member of international city networks,
benefiting from good experience sharing, and following the latest develop-
ments. To strengthen their capacity, municipalities should strengthen their
institutional structures and invest in their stakeholders, personnel, movable
and immovable equipment.
Arrangements to be made in urban spaces can be listed as follows: First of
all, the public spaces, which are decreasing day by day, should be arranged
for the use of the citizens in an easy and accessible way not for commercial
and touristic rent purposes, but for the public benefit; pedestrianization in
the city, that is, planning car-free zones, determining meeting places in times
of crisis, street improvement and rehabilitation, arranging parks and sports
areas, providing areas for local producers and establishing producer markets,
promoting the local economy, arranging alternative transportation routes
(such as bicycle paths), restoring historical buildings to the public and facili-
tating the access of disabled people to public spaces.
The urban dweller who has reached the awareness of urbanity must trust the
public administration for the immunized city. If the public believes that the
public administration is competent, fair, and honest in the face of emergen-
cies and takes its side in its struggle, city immunity increases. In the public poli-
cies regarding the city to be created from the bottom up, the society should
also demand and participate in the decisions taken.
In the face of possible pandemics, epidemics, disasters and crises, all actors in
the global sense need to make efforts for urban immunity. The whole world
needs to believe in this and work for healthier and more resilient cities, es-
pecially public administration actors. A livable world for everyone should be
created, starting from the local against global inequalities.
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