Questioning the Covid-19-induced ‘counterurbanisation story’
- Author(s)
- Martina Schorn, Alexander Barnsteiner, Alois Humer
- Abstract
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a discursive change in the representation of urban-rural mobilities in the Austrian public media. Before the pandemic, a narrative of ‘rural decline’ had dominated the media discourse. Media have since changed this narrative to one of counterurbanisation as a result of the (perceived) effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on residential location choices. However, in contrast to media perceptions, scientific debates were more reluctant to identify a Covid-induced counterurban movement. In this paper, we take the opposition between the media representation and the scientific evidence as a starting point for a critical investigation of the media representation of counterurbanisation in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the approach of discourse coalitions, we investigated the actors and the coalitions they had formed to promote a Covid-induced ‘counterurbanisation story’. We could identify two coalitions that created two variations of the Covid-induced ‘counterurbanisation story’: a prudent and an idealised discourse. These two discourses were promoted by different actors with different interests. Through our findings, the paper adds another layer to study of the construction of a ‘counterurbanisation story’.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Geography and Regional Research
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
- Journal
- Habitat international
- Volume
- 147
- ISSN
- 0197-3975
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103059
- Publication date
- 05-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 507022 Urban planning
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Urban Studies
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/16cb1e80-d6cc-4486-9aa9-4e47bba0c31b