SOCI AL INN O VATI O N IN THE FACE O F T H E COVID- 1 9 PANDEM I C Winning contribution for the call for inspiration of Belgium's Young Academy “Anticipating life after the COVID-19 pandemic" A Manifesto for a Better Post-COVID-19 World A Manifesto for a Better Post-COVID-19 World SOCIAL INNOVATION Authors IN THE FACE OF THE Abdellatif Atif (Free university of Bolzano, Italy), Carlos Escarpenter Martinez, Canavate (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain; KU Leuven, Belgium), Christine Muchiri Njuhi (Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, COVID-19 PANDEMIC Kenya), Clara Medina García (KU Leuven, Belgium; UCM, Spain), Dawit Gebrehiwet (Ethiopian Institute of Technology - Mekelle University, Ethiopia), Dora Bellamacina (Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy), Eshete Sitotaw (Addis Ababa City Plan and Develop- INSIST Cahier 4 ment Commission, Ethiopia), Farzana Yasmin (KU Leuven, Belgium), Federica Rotondo (Politecnico of Turin, Italy), Frank Moulaert (KU Leuven, June 2020 Belgium), Genaro Alva Zevallos (IMSDP Network), Grace Valasa (Techni- cal University of Kenya, Kenya), Hongkai Chen (KU Leuven, Belgium), Isye Susana Nurhasanah (KU Leuven, Belgium; Institut Teknologi Sumatera, Indonesia), Joan Nyagwalla Otieno (KU Leuven, Belgium; Technical University of Kenya), Juliet Njeri Ritta (Technical University of Kenya), This Manifesto is part of the working paper “Social innovation in Kammerhofer Arthur (KU Leuven, Belgium; TU Wien, Austria), Marjan the face of the COVID-19 pandemic”, drafted in the frame of Marjanovic (Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK), the International Module in Spatial Development Planning (IMSDP) March-May 2020. Martina Bocci (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Mohak Jhawar (KU Leuven, The full document is prepared by contributors from the IMSDP Belgium), Monica Martinez Fernandez (KU Leuven, Belgium; ETSAM, Post-graduate Programme and Masters students enrolled for Spain), MuluberhanBiedemariam Tassew (Shire Campus Aksum Universi- the course Institutional Aspects of Spatial Planning (IASP) at the Faculty of Engineering Science at KU Leuven. It is available on: ty, Ethiopia), Ninelia Markarian (KU Leuven, Belgium), Nur Hamidah https://www.insist.earth/ (Bandung Disaster Study Group; U-Inspire, Indonesia), Pieter Van den Broeck (KU Leuven, Belgium), Richard Bärnthaler (Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria), Sonia Mollica (Mediterranean Universi- ty of Reggio Calabria, Italy), Sylvia Inziani (Maseno University, Kenya), Vidya Spay (Nata Desa Indonesia), Wossen Gebreyohannes Balcha (EiABC, Ethiopia), Yescha Danandjojo (IMSDP Network). A Manifesto for a Better Post-COVID-19 World COVID-19 is showing the fallacy of the ‘We cannot go back to normal because neo-liberal age normality was the problem’ Our ways of living, acting, and thinking are subject The COVID-19 crisis is simply an expression of a more to—historically contingent—material politico-economic, significant crisis that humanity is going through: a and socio-cultural framework conditions and path civilisation crisis. We must unlearn considering ourselves dependencies. In the city, urban infrastructures are a as superior beings on earth and to species. We all are central example in this regard. They shape our part of the earth; she does not need us, but we do everyday practices: from mobility, dwelling, and leisure need her. So, we must live with her. We must unlearn to care, working, and shopping. If there are no cycling that development is only synonymous with economic lanes, we cannot use the bicycle to satisfy our need for growth, competitiveness, and productivity. It is also in mobility. If there are no green spaces, we cannot meet the immaterial: health, fellowship, joy, the beauty of our demand for recreation without having to leave the building something in commonality, productivity as the city. If there is a lack of open urban space, physical fact of doing more with less, protecting ourselves in distancing becomes impossible. solidarity, giving us love. However, these collective systems, necessary for During the 2008 economic crisis, we witnessed the basic needs’ satisfaction and provision of wellbeing, rise of social movements outraged by neoliberal have been fundamentally undermined by a radical policies. Were these protests a fight for a fairer world, or individualism that emerged in the neoliberal era in the did they arise from the recovery need of the artificial, 1980s. The individual (consumer) became the central comfortable, and individualistic world that had been locus of attention. Individual market choice (in line with sold to society? rational-choice theory) replaced common political The 2008 crisis created the perfect conditions for the decisions. The individual replaced the collective emergence of neo-populism, a thought based on the subject. Privatisation, the retreat of the state and the rise of the emotional factor, nurturing a brutalised and commodification of ever-new areas of life have been credulous society lacking critical capacity. The same logical consequences of this strain of thought. Within community that, today, prefers to support characters this dogma, it is the individual that is to blame if the virus such as Greta Thunberg, as the prophet girl of the cannot be contained or if a transition to a more apocalypse dramatically upset with the world, instead ecologically sustainable mode of living is not to be of acknowledging scientific arguments. achieved. These actions are no longer conceived as a Compared to the COVID-19 outbreak, the climate collective endeavour. Individual responsibility replaced crisis has never been recognised as a crisis, maybe collective responsibility. Market logics characterised by because society has created the perfect framework to an ability-to-pay morality replaced democratic guide our decisions based solely on our passions and deliberations and the negotiation of those values that discrediting the scientific. Or, perhaps, because the structure our lives together. Democracy turned into a climate crisis does not affect the minority that supermarket, the city into a magnet for international dominates and commodifies most of the planet’s capital. natural attributes and has decision-making power. Isn’t COVID-19 has revealed this way of thinking as what that why, today, they force us to use the term it is: a dangerous fallacy. Coping with crises, be it ‘resilience,’ to manipulate these vulnerable groups into COVID-19 or the climate crisis, cannot be left to market accepting the persistent inequalities of this system and forces and the individual alone. COVID-19 its effects, such as climate change? demonstrates that we need to regain the ability to Today’s predominant politics are obsolete, inflexible, deliberate among a plurality of actors—to discuss, and inhuman, revolving around the state, institutions, disagree, argue, gain new perspectives, disagree and capital. Let’s not let this pandemic be a pretext to (again). And, ultimately, find compromises on how we continue with failed recipes for economic reactivation want to live together, not necessarily as friends, but at policies that only benefit the minority of privileged least as equals and certainly not as enemies. COVID-19 individuals and corporations that have only produced has revived a new sense of community, mutual respect, greater inequality. We need to change politics into one and help. It has restored the insight that we are deeply that is dynamic, adaptive, and interdependent, like life embedded in and dependent on collective systems itself. For this, we could incorporate biology, ecology, and those who maintain them—from infrastructures and and life sciences. In this way, we would live in a society health services to communities and (often) strangers that practices a policy of life, for life, and to live life. (cashiers, delivery workers, nurses, sanitation workers, As many people have been saying, we cannot go …). Therefore, we need to build new forms of and back to normal because normality was the problem. It strengthen collaboration between, a diversity of actors is up to us to rethink of what world or worlds we want for on multiple levels to shape our common paths towards future generations. Perhaps it is about that: accepting the future. that it is possible to live with different worlds respectfully and that, together, we can build universal ideas based on dialogue and conflict, with critical regard towards Our notion for a future agenda previous hegemonic impositions. In the case of a crisis, the juxtaposition between COVID-19 has been a disruption of the way we think individual and community desires is enhanced. When about our cities as well as rural areas. This pandemic resources are limited, people frequently depend on has proved that every nation, whether developed or governments to provide an organised rescue plan. This not, needs to rethink how they undertake planning and initiative also evokes a moral dilemma as individuals development of their territories. It has provided an maintain the right to choose how to comply with the opportunity to rethink governance systems, urban-rural legislation. Their practices are often driven by a cost- linkages, community solidarity, international labour and benefit evaluation of their needs, with the social values trade, climate change, the provision of basic services, as a whole. and the wellbeing and safety of residents. A shift to a Therefore, it is essential (for individuals, companies more nature-embedded attitude is needed