Hambleton, Robin. Cities and communities beyond Covid‐19. Great Britain: Bristol University Press. 2020. pp. 177. ISBN: 9781529215854
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| Author | Jyoti Aggarwal,Sally C. Selden |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12940 |
BOOK REVIEW
Cities and communities beyond Covid-19
Hambleton,Robin. Great Britain: Bristol University Press. 2020. pp. 177. ISBN:
9781529215854
Jyoti Aggarwal
1
|Sally C. Selden
2,3
1
School of Economics, Policy, and Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
2
The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
3
National Academy of Public Administration, Washington, DC, USA
Correspondence
Jyoti Aggarwal, School of Economics, Policy, and Public Affairs The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX,USA.
Email: jyoti.aggarwal@utdallas.edu
Public administration and leadership are intertwined, but when the current model of local issues such as housing
delivery, transport solutions, to global issues such as climate change, the current model just is not delivering. During
the current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus, lockdown, and economic disruption have been testing
society's systems of education, food, health, politics, and crisis management plans. Cities, and Communities Beyond
Covid-19, Robin Hambleton urges community leaders to glean lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and see the
opportunity that has been presented to conceptualize and rebuild the governance model. This model is based on
local action rather than top-down governance. With the help of eminent speakers, writers, and Nobel laureates, argu-
ments are compared to develop solutions during and after pandemic situations. The author theorizes that “there is
no going back”and invites the audience to think about an exciting new future, one in which we cocreate solutions to
our most vexing challenges and thereby create a more inclusive model of governance.
From Chapter 1, Hambleton presents the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human life where
more than 10 million people have been infected and more than 3 million people died worldwide. Hambleton claims
that a flourishing society and future development depend on people and organizations working together to address
such challenges. Hambleton questions how much power people living in particular places have anyway? (7). In this
regard, the author provides four sets of forces that shape the world of place-based governance in any given locality:
environmental limits, economic, governmental, and sociocultural forces (Hambleton, 2015, p. 114).
While explaining environmental limits, Hambleton presents the scientific evidence on climate change which sug-
gests that we should be responsible toward our natural ecosystems.
By calling these limits non-negotiable, Hambleton urges that failure to pay attention to environmental limits will
mass unmanageable problems for future generations. On the other hand, sociocultural forces encompass both people
and culture. In this category, there is a rich variety of voices and different perspectives on the kind of place they wish
to live in. In this kind of environment, leaders who pay little or no attention to local issues should not expect to stay
in the office for too long. In conclusion, Hambleton explores how elected local governments and other place-based
actors might respond to societal challenges of dealing with these four forces and underscores the need to under-
stand the potential constraints on local political actions. The author notes that various powerful forces shape the
context within which civic leaders operate, and these forces limit what local leaders may be able to accomplish.
Received: 3 November 2022Revised: 4 March 2023Accepted: 5 May 2023
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12940
Public Admin. 2023;101:1607–1609. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.1607
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