(Re)Turning to Urban (new) Normality

“I just want things to be back to normal again” – these are the words spoken by people wearied by the consecutive pandemic waves and the uncertainty they bring about. The fear of the virus, periods of lockdown, and strong social distancing measures have destabilized “normal” life in cities all over the world. They have prevented or limited routine activities, and questioned the default rules, rhythms, and geographies of urban life. After seeking out security, and opening up to new challenges, we seem to have entered a stage of embracing “the new normal”. This stage opened with the claim of “(re)turning to normality,” which can be seen as a(n) (re)entry of a commonly shared and tacitly assumed general understanding of “how can or should members of a society live” (Trentmann 2009: 69). “New normal” urban practices are being envisioned and implemented by cities via urban planning and public policies. They are also being developed and enacted by the city dwellers as they adapt their daily routines to the realities of the (post)pandemic city life. In this session, we aim to facilitate a debate about “the new normal” in the (post)pandemic cities, emerging from urban political visions and everyday practices, and its (potential) exclusionary effects. The pandemic has revealed the existing urban inequalities. Are the visions and practices of re/turning to normality deepening the existing and/or creating new inequalities? Or maybe, as many would hope, they bring about more equality?