The chapters of this volume explored the impacts of the pandemic from three perspectives: their contribution to changes in the way cities operate and in social inequality, and the policy responses the pandemic has prompted. Most contributions to the volume offered snapshots of situations prevailing at a specific time and place in the protracted worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. These snapshots exposed similarities and differences in ways the pandemic intersects with most aspects of urban life and challenges the capacity of institutions. This was also the case of the comparative chapters (Three, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, and Twenty), which identified parallels and divergences between responses to the pandemic adopted in different cities. The volume was about the COVID-19 pandemic, the reactions it triggered, and the consequences of both the pandemic and of these responses.

The chapters did not benefit from much hindsight, written as they were in the heat of the pandemic, though importantly, after the initial shock of the first months had already passed. They chronicled the pandemic, responses, and consequences in different locales as they manifested themselves in the winter, spring, and summer 2020, without knowledge of the ensuing evolution of the pandemic and relying on the information on COVID-19 that was available at the time. In this sense, the chapters were nearly written in real time, as the events they narrated were unfolding. Although the volume does not claim to provide a systematic overview of how the pandemic affected cities over this period, its different chapters did portray the urban impact of COVID-19 in different parts of the world and identified major themes related to COVID-19, its social consequences and urban policy and planning responses to the pandemic.

The chapters provided an account of the decision-making of individuals, civil society organizations, and public institutions in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. But they were written in the same climate of uncertainty about the future of the pandemic and limited COVID-19 knowledge that confronted decision makers. The chapters focused on immediate issues arising from the pandemic without the benefit of a perspective on its future dynamics and the full ramifications of COVID-19, echoing the environment in which decisionmaking was taking place at the time.