Governing Urban Crisis Through Adaptive Urban Law: Lessons from City Responses to COVID-19 in the Netherlands and South Africa

The global Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of urban systems and underscored the need to recalibrate regulatory and institutional frameworks for an anticipated crisis-prone future. This article explores the notion of ‘adaptive law and governance’ as a lens through which city authorities can test and modify legal and governance responses to future urban crises. It compares the experiences of managing Covid-19 in the two biggest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and in South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town). This comparison, between two sets of urban municipal governm... Mehr ...