Planning and meta-planning for disruptive events: Learning from the Covid19 pandemic

What is it about?

In discussing the Italian response to the Covid-19 pandemic, certain weaknesses are identified (i.e. the excessive role assumed by the executive branch, along with frictions among different institutional levels, overregulation and excessive bureaucratisation); and possible lessons highlighted, in terms of both planning (i.e. the necessity to better pre-define concrete and circumscribed sets of actions) and of meta-planning (i.e. the necessity to change certain ideas of individuals and of urban societies, maintain a significant role also for parliament, downsize the role of the executive, and define a clearer division of responsibilities between central, regional and local governments).

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Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been analysed and discussed from many disciplinary perspectives. An aspect that still needs critical exploration is the role – that is, the modes and forms – of regulatory interventions during the pandemic. It is interesting to note in this regard that, in many studies, regulatory measures are labelled “non-pharmaceutical interventions”, as if they do not have any specificity on their own and only represent a theoretically residual category. The main aim of this article is instead to focus on the distinctive features of normative measures as such.

Perspectives