SASUF Goes Digital: 2020 Edition

This session will integrate two collaborative and multi-disciplinary projects with the COVID-19 pandemic in focus but from different points of view. We will show the strengths of trans-sector research to meet societal challenges.  
 
Initial responses to Covid-19 were mainly national. However, cities around the world soon added local adaptations like promotion of biking and safe public transport.  
 
A Mistra Urban Futures team followed the implementation of the SDGs in Cape Town, Gothenburg and other cities, also studying urban responses to COVID-19. 
 
Cape Town’s main challenge was the impact on informal settlement residents who are particularly at risk of infectious diseases as it is difficult to practice social distancing in overcrowded conditions with a lack of adequate water supply and sanitation.  
 
In Gothenburg, many workplaces, including universities, recommended staff to work from home, adding local recommendations and guidelines. Quick actions were taken concerning distance education, public transport and additional street space for bike lanes.  
 
In parallel, communication researchers, also from Cape Town and Gothenburg, followed COVID-19 media coverage using diaries to observe and reflect on the role and authority of science. Arguments and discussions about scientific expertise were followed, and patterns, shifts in narratives and international differences were observed. 

Keywords: COVID-19, transdisciplinary, communication, societal challenges, SDG